


斯坦顿岛 Staten Island

by kloudyes



Series: Klo的流花纽约科幻三部曲 (Kloudyes' Ruhana NYC Sci-Fi Trilogy) [3]
Category: Slam Dunk, 灌篮高手 - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:15:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25067506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kloudyes/pseuds/kloudyes
Summary: 与主要发生在纽约的《联合广场》不同，此文的世界是一个流哥刚毕业就去湾区工作并遇到花花的平行世界。Different from Union Square, in which the story mainly happened in NYC, the world in Staten Island is a parallel world where Rukawa went straight to Bay Area to work upon graduation and met Hana there.(English updated! Chinese and English versions available in every chapter.)
Relationships: Rukawa Kaede/Sakuragi Hanamichi, 流花 - Relationship
Series: Klo的流花纽约科幻三部曲 (Kloudyes' Ruhana NYC Sci-Fi Trilogy) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678921
Comments: 15
Kudos: 1





	1. 超级新人 Super Rookie

“三井，你的菜这周多钱？”宫城从传送带上拿起一盘橄榄油蒜味蒸牡蛎。  
“别提了！今天上午已经跌到39铃钱了，真愁人。今天已经周五了，我要早点回去卖菜。”三井的手也伸向同一盘蒸牡蛎，“是我的！”  
“我昨天错过了卖菜，”流川突然凑了过来，“我也要这个。”  
“要不要这样！”三井被挤在中间，“一盘正好三个，一人一个吧。我有个交易群组，可以把链接分享给你。有些岛主价格会很高，你可以选一个。”  
“你们听说了那个叫樱木花道的岛主了吗？”宫城又拿了七八盘寿司，把摆不下的往三井面前的桌上放。  
“没有，怎么了？”三井夹起蒸牡蛎放进嘴里，“嗯！太好吃了！我宣布这里加入最新版湾区回转寿司top 3榜单！”  
“他好像自己黑进服务器把代码改了。”宫城又拿了一盘鲑鱼卵亲子手卷，“据说他刚玩没几天，不仅还清了所有房贷，还集齐了全部动物图鉴，ATM也爆了。”  
“开发者没有去找他吗？”流川咬了一口厚切牛舌寿司。  
“我觉得只是时间问题。你如果找他卖菜的话要尽快！他每周五或者周六晚上都会在群组发邀请。”  
“他不缺钱了为什么还要邀请大家。”  
“他想收集一些稀有的家具，没有他指定的家具不能上岛。虽然条件很苛刻，但找他卖一次就彻底财务自由！”

下班后回到家，流川点击三井发的链接，加入了交易群。  
群成员们的上岛邀请一条接一条地弹出。流川快速划着屏幕浏览门票费：300张机票，400个金矿石……他皱起了眉头。划动到列表底部，看到一位叫樱木的岛主，他的手突然停下了。  
[菜价：11110元。门票：500个白羊座碎片/NBA签名纪念版篮球/童话王子全球仅此一双透明高跟鞋/彩虹格纹全球仅此一件苏格兰短裙。排队人数：0人。]  
NBA签名纪念版篮球！流川马上点击“排队”，把密码输进游戏机，飞向樱木的岛。眼看飞机就要降落，屏幕突然弹出“连接已断开。”  
[我的岛炸了吗？]樱木在留言板里出现。  
[显示“连接已断开”]  
[那是你网络有问题。如果你带的是碎片，我今天已经收到很多了。你要不去别人的岛卖吧，我重连还要十几分钟呢]  
[我有NBA签名纪念版篮球]  
[真的吗！！！等我一下，我重连上先换个衣服，然后马上给你开门！]  
[不急]流川发出消息，放下游戏机和手机，打开手边的电脑，在搜索界面输入樱木花道。第一个条目是领英主页，他把领英账号切换成组里的公用账号，点了进去——神奈川出生，高中转学到旧金山，去年夏天本科毕业后回到湾区工作。第一份工作在和光游戏公司（Union Lights, UL），距离湘北十几分钟车程。爱好是篮球、攀岩和烹饪。他又打开了和光的主页，在一个叫极品格斗的游戏的开发人员名单里搜到了樱木的名字。他正准备下载极品格斗，手机屏幕亮了，他赶紧拿起游戏机重新连接登岛。  
[好看吗？]樱木从试衣间出来，穿着短裙和高跟鞋向他炫耀。[刚才换的]  
[很好看]流川打开背包，掏出篮球放在地上，[不用还我，送你的]  
[哇，谢谢你，可这是非卖品吧？]  
[我有获得的渠道。你的真实姓名就叫樱木？]  
[干嘛，难道你是这个游戏的开发者？你要找我麻烦对不对！]  
[我是普通的玩家，别紧张]  
[我怎么才能知道你说的是真的？]  
[你平时打篮球吗，湾区的篮球赛你会去吗？加我好友，下次比赛请你去新开的奶茶店喝一杯]  
[本天才每次都去，你一定是刚来湾区所以还不知道我]  
手机屏幕亮了，樱木解锁查看。收到一个好友请求，用户名叫做11，头像和刚才游戏里看到的相同。他点了同意，进去查看11的最新动态。上个星期11获得了一个奖，奖状左上角的logo是他这几天在面试的湘北！放大图片读奖状上的名字，“Rukawa……真是个有意思的名字。”突然又收到一条新消息，他点击查看。  
[樱木，我明天可以再来吗？抱歉刚才忘记卖菜了……]  
[没问题！收到篮球我心情大好！明天一整晚都是你的专场。]

“之前推荐的交易群，谢了。”流川从传送带上拿下来一盘蒸牡蛎，放在三井的面前。  
“嘿，别客气！大家共同实现财务自由。”  
“对了，关于湾区的篮球赛，前辈有见到一个叫樱木花道的球员吗？”  
“你是说那个从UL跳过来的超级新人吗？他给我印象很深。宫城你还有那次比赛的照片吧，给流川看看。”  
宫城从口袋摸出手机，找出几张照片，拿给流川看。照片的主角都是三井，流川却始终盯着照片里时而出现的另一个红发男人。紧实的肌肉，矫健的身姿，扎实的基本功，还有精准的直觉！看到最后一张他灌篮的身姿，流川睁大了眼睛。  
“他身体素质很好吧？他上周刚辞职，正在面咱们公司呢。这几天他在选组，我看他想做的内容跟咱们组在做的《斯坦顿岛》挺合适的，说不定咱们很快就能欢迎他入组了。”  
流川把宫城手机上的球赛照片全部传送给自己。下一次球赛是7月6日，他在日程上打了三个叹号。

"Mitsui, how much is your turnip this week?" Miyagi picked up a plate of olive oil and garlic steamed oysters from the conveyor belt.

"Don't mention it! This morning it dropped to 39. How sad. It's already Friday, I have to go back early to sell them." Mitsui's hand also reached for the same plate of steamed oysters, "It's mine!"

"I missed the time slot of selling turnip yesterday," Rukawa suddenly leaned in, "I want this too."

"You got to be kidding me!" Mitsui was squeezed in the middle, "There are three on a plate, so let's have one each. I have a turnip trading group and I can share the link with you. Some of the island masters will offer very expensive price, and you can choose one."

"Did you hear about Sakuragi Hanamichi the island master?" Miyagi took eight more plates of sushi, putting the ones that couldn't be placed on his table in front of Mitsui's.

"No, what happened to him?" Mitsui grabbed the steamed oyster and put it in his mouth, "Mmm! It's so good! I'm adding this place to the latest edition of Top 3 Bay Area Rotation Sushi!"

"It is said that he hacked into the server and changed the code." Miyagi took another plate of salmon roe handroll, "They said he just played for a few days, and he not only paid off all his mortgages, but gathered all the animals in the illustrations, and his ATM was full of money."

"The developer didn't go after him?" Rukawa took a bite of thick-cut beef tongue sushi.

"I think it's just a matter of time. If you're looking for him to sell turnip, do it soon! He sends out invitations in the group every Friday or Saturday night."

"Why would he invite everyone when he's not short of money."

"He wants to collect some rare furniture. Those without the furniture he specifies can't get on the island. It's a harsh condition, but sell it at his place once and you would be fully Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)!"

Returning home from work, Rukawa clicked on the link Mitsui had sent and joined the trading group.

One by one, group members' invitations to their islands popped up. Rukawa quickly tapped the screen to browse the fees: 300 plane tickets, 400 gold ores...he frowned. Scratching to the bottom of the list, he saw an island master named Sakuragi, and his hand suddenly stopped.

[Turnip price: 11,110. Fee: 500 Aries fragments / NBA autographed basketball / Fairy Tale Prince clear heels (the only one in the world) / Rainbow Kilt (the only one in the world). Number in line: 0].

NBA autographed basketball! Rukawa immediately clicked "queue", entered the password into the game console, and flew to Sakuragi's island. As the plane was about to land, the screen suddenly popped up with "Disconnected."

[Did my island go offline?] Sakuragi appears on the message board.

[It says "disconnected"]

[That's a problem with your network. If you're bringing fragments, I've already received plenty today. Why don't you go sell it on someone else's island? It'll take me ten minutes to reconnect.]

[I've got an NBA autographed basketball]

[Really?!!! Give me a minute! I'll reconnect and change clothes first, then I'll open the door for you right away!]

[No worries] Rukawa sent out the message, put down his game console and phone, turned on his laptop and typed Sakuragi Hanamichi into the search engine. The first entry was his Linkedin page. He switched his account to his group's public account and clicked on it - born in Kanagawa, transferred to San Francisco in high school and returned to the Bay Area to work after graduating last summer. His first job was at Union Lights (UL) Game Company, ten minutes from Shohoku Game Company. His hobbies are basketball, rock climbing and cooking. He opened homepage of UL and found Sakuragi's name in a list of developers for a game called Superb Fighting. He was about to download the game when his phone screen lit up, and he quickly picked up the game console and reconnected to go to the island.

[Do I look good?] Sakuragi came out of the fitting room, showing off in a kilt and high heels. [Just changed them a couple of minutes ago]

[Very nice] Rukawa opened his backpack, pulled out a basketball and put it on the ground. [No need to give it back, it's for you]

[Wow, thank you, but it's not for sale, is it?]

[I have access to certain channels. Your real name is Sakuragi?]

[What's wrong with it, are you the developer of this game? You're going to get me in trouble, aren't you!]

[I'm a regular player, don't be nervous]

[How do I know you're telling the truth?]

[Do you play basketball regularly? Do you go to basketball games in the Bay Area? Add me as a friend. I'll buy you a drink at the new milk tea shop at next game]

[Me the genius goes there every time. You must be new to the Bay Area; that's why you don't know me.]

The phone screen lighted up and Sakuragi unlocked to check. A friend request was received. The username was 11, with the same avatar he just saw in the game. He tapped agree and went to check 11's latest update. Last week 11 won an award, and the logo in the top left corner of the award was Shohoku, the company he had been interviewing for the past few days! He zoomed in the image to read the name on the award, "Rukawa...that's an interesting name." Suddenly receiving a new message, he clicked to check.

[Sakuragi, can I come back tomorrow? Sorry I forgot to sell the turnip earlier...]

[No problem! I'm in a good mood with the basketball! It'll be your special session all night tomorrow].

"Thanks for the trading group you recommended previously." Rukawa took a plate of steamed oysters from the conveyor belt and placed it in front of Mitsui.

"Hey, don't mention it! We all achieve FIRE together."

"By the way, about the basketball game in the Bay Area, did you see a player named Sakuragi Hanamichi?"

"You mean the super rookie from UL? He impressed me a lot. Miyagi, you still have pictures from that game, show them to Rukawa."

Miyagi took his phone from his pocket, found some pictures and showed them to Rukawa. The pictures all had Mitsui as the main character, but Rukawa couldn't take his eyes off from the other redhead who appeared in the pictures from time to time. Tight muscles, sturdy posture, solid basic skills, and precise instincts! Seeing the last picture of him dunking, Rukawa opened his eyes wide.

"He's got a good body, right? He quitted his job last week and is doing interviews of our company. I think the game he wants to do is quite suitable for our group's Staten Island. We might welcome him to our team soon."

Rukawa sent all the pictures of the game on Miyagi's phone to himself. The next game was July 6, he put three exclamation marks on his schedule.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 女装不等于娘化，懂的人自然懂。  
> 娘没有任何问题，只是它不是我在这里想要表达的内容~
> 
> Wearing clothes of female does not equal to being more female in character. Hope you also understand.
> 
> There is absolutely nothing wrong with being female, it's just not what I want to express here~


	2. 量子酒吧 Quantum Bar

“刚才咱俩那个配合真妙！你看到对方脸上的表情了吗？”樱木笑着打开车窗，任由大风吹干他的红发。  
“看到了。”流川把车窗关上，“那样吹会感冒。去圣佩德罗广场集市转转？”  
“好啊。”樱木打开音乐，“你平时经常这样出来玩吗？还是更喜欢在家玩很多游戏？”  
“基本没有玩很多游戏，”流川发动着车子，“虽然我周围最近有人在玩……极品格斗。”  
“啊，极品格斗！我前东家的骄傲之作。”  
“你应该有参与开发吧。”  
“你怎么知道的？”  
“核心成员钱没给到位，所以跳到我们公司，这样的人太多了。”  
“啊，我确实参与了开发，不过我自己从来没有玩过。其实我就是不太喜欢把自己局限在格斗游戏里，我才离开UL来你们公司的。”  
“你想开发什么样的游戏？”  
“那种能揭开人类秘密的游戏。比如说让大家知道人类其实是外星人的那种。”  
“……我们组最近在开发的游戏基本就是这样。叫《斯坦顿岛》，你可以查查。”  
樱木摸出手机打开搜索引擎，输入的却是流川枫的名字。他点进了他的脸书主页——生日是1月1日，出生地是神奈川，去年刚毕业就加入了湘北，爱好是篮球、自驾旅游和睡觉……  
“对了……”流川突然转过头，樱木的手机掉在大腿上。流川瞥了一眼手机屏幕上的蓝白界面，视线很快回到自己手机的导航，“我查到集市里新开了一家评价很不错的酒吧，先去那里喝一杯？”  
“啊，好，我晚上没有别的安排。”樱木看了一眼导航终点，拿起手机，手指飞快地动着：  
[洋平，救命！狐狸要带我去你们酒吧！从现在开始，你不认识我！不要和我说话！]

纯黑的思域停在一家深蓝色招牌的酒吧门口，樱木下了车注视着锁车的流川。贴身的白衬衫在夕阳下隐约泛着金色的光泽，简约的黑色手表和皮质双肩包材质考究。他拨开门帘，穿过银色和粉色的霓虹灯光，穿着黑背心的调酒师朝人群中的他挥手，“花花，你今天来得这么早！”  
“你，认识他？”流川看着樱木。  
“他认识我，我不认识他。”樱木扭头。  
“你先坐一会儿，我去接个电话。”流川离开了。  
“洋平！”樱木捶着桌子，“我刚才在他车上给你发了信息的！”  
“啊，我刚才忙着招待客人，没看手机，我现在看看……哦，和你说话有什么后果吗？”  
“你们是gay吧！这样他不就知道我的性取向了吗！”  
“任何人都可以来这里。而且我一直以为你不是那种担心别人看法的人？”  
“他又不是别人。”樱木从包里掏出唇膏往嘴上涂，“前几天我选组的时候第一眼就注意到他了，可我不想这么快就让他认为我是对他有意思。”  
“你这个反应我倒是十几年来第一次见，”洋平举起手臂摇晃着酒，“花花，如果有男人跟你初次见面就向你展示自己的少数群体身份，你会觉得他是对你有意思吗？”  
“那倒不会。”  
“所以不必担心。现在谁敢保证自己跟少数群体完全不沾边呢？连我都不敢说自己是个100%的直人。早点让他知道不是更好吗？”  
樱木托起下巴哼了一声，流川坐在他身旁。  
“啊，那边的沙发空出来了。你们可以去那里，视野绝佳。”

粉色霓虹灯的照射下，环绕着沙发的水幕有规律地跳动着。  
“帮你点咯，这家的招牌。”樱木把另一杯莫吉托推到流川面前，“所以，你平时除了打篮球和打游戏，还喜欢做什么？”  
“自驾旅游，睡觉。”流川盯着舞台上的红发舞者。一曲终了，舞者从钢管上缓缓降落。他脱下军帽，俯身到舞台边缘献上飞吻，台下的人纷纷将百元纸币往他的紧身皮裤里塞。  
“这样很不卫生吧。”  
“什么？”樱木扭过头注视着舞台，“哦，他们不会在意的，他们是虚拟的。”  
“原来如此。”  
“最妙的是，这家酒吧的设备可以智能识别出你现在的生理、心理状态以及你的预期，所以每个人看到的场景都会不同。也许我跟你看到的不是同一个舞者呢！”樱木拿起酒杯喝了一口，“如果你要问我为什么这么了解，那是因为我本科期间幸运地参与了研发。”  
“真是厉害。不过比起识别，不如说是窥探吧。”流川从包里掏出日程本和笔，勾勒着眼前的舞者。  
舞者换了一身衣服，腰身扭动着，双腿叉开俯下身子，全身的肌肉线条紧绷得恰到好处。突然，他解开了格裙侧面的扣子，把格裙往台下一抛，内裤下凸起的形状清晰可见。  
流川摸着自己的腹肌，感觉自己全身都被烧着了。  
“你是新来的。”舞者从舞台跳下，眯起眼睛盯着流川看，“脸长得挺嫩，让我看看那里怎么样？”他撩起他的衬衫，按着他的腰，用食指拉开他的内裤。“哦，我他妈的上帝！你真是天赋异禀。这是我的手机号，你收好，方便的时候打给我。”男人把纸条塞进流川手里，重新上台，台下观众再次开始骚动。

“流——川——！你想不想看看别的？这里很大的！”  
流川回过神，樱木在他眼前晃动着。  
“你完全看呆啦，哈哈哈。你手上拿的是什么？”樱木靠过去查看纸上的内容，笑容逐渐消失了。“咳咳，这……今天也不早了吧哈哈……洋平！帮我和流川安排下代驾。”  
“好嘞，回去早点休息吧，明天你们还要上班呢。”洋平拿出面板操纵着，“安排好了，仙道在门口等你们。”  
“今天有两位乘客呢。”仙道笑着戴上白手套打开车门。  
“不许问。”樱木瞪了他一眼，“你这个戴手套的动作和时长都是我设计的，用来体现你的专业和细致。敢问我明天就废了你。”  
“哎呀，别激动嘛。我没有一点想要问的意思，不信你去查我的记录，或者你进我系统删除都行。已经智能安排了先送你，再送流川的路线。”  
“我们竟然顺路吗？”樱木躺在后排，“空调再冷点。”  
“你们的住处驾车距离15分钟。检测到你现在的身体状态不太适合更冷的温度，你确定要调冷吗？”  
“快点调，我要热死了。”樱木拿起座椅后面的杂志扇着。  
“不要调。”流川伸手挡住面板。  
“啊，真是意料之外呢。”仙道恢复了一开始的笑容，“那就开始导航了。”  
三个人一路没有说话——流川的眼前一直浮现着舞者的身姿；没有冷风吹的樱木，浑身的燥热更严重了。  
“樱木，你家到了。”仙道把车停在大门正前方。  
“啊，这么快的吗……那我就先回去休息了，晚安！”他朝流川招手。  
“晚安。”流川目送着樱木和他漂亮的独栋在视线中消失。

"That was a great collaboration between us! Did you see the look on the guy's face?" Sakuragi smiled and opened the window of the car, letting the wind dry his red hair.

"I saw it." Rukawa closed the window, "You'll catch a cold. Do you wanna go to the San Pedro Square Market?"

"OK." Sakuragi turned on the music, "Do you usually hang out like this? Or do you prefer to play a lot of games at home?"

"Not many games," Rukawa started the car, "although recently people around me are playing... Superb Fighting."

"Ah, Superb Fighting! The proud work of my former employer."

"You were involved in developing it, I suppose."

"How do you know that?"

"Core members weren't paid enough, so they joined our company. I've seen too many of those."

"Ah, I did developed it, but I never played it myself. In fact, I just don't like limiting myself to fighting games. That's why I left UL and joined your company."

"What kind of game do you want to develop?"

"The kind of game that reveals the secrets of human. For example, the kind that lets everyone know that humans are actually aliens."

"...The game our group has been developing recently is basically like that. Staten Island, you can look it up."

Sakuragi got his phone and opened the search engine, but Kaede Rukawa was the name that he typed in. He clicked into his Facebook page - his birthday is January 1st, his birthplace is Kanagawa, he joined Shohoku right after graduation last year, and his hobbies are basketball, driving by himself when travelling and sleeping....

"By the way..." suddenly Rukawa turned his head, and Sakuragi dropped his phone in his lap. Rukawa glanced at the blue and white interface on his phone's screen, his eyes quickly returning to his own phone's navigation, "I found a new and well-rated bar opened in the marketplace. Shall we go there for a drink first?"

"Ah, okay, I have no other plans for the evening." Sakuragi took a look at the destination of the navigation, picked up his phone and moved his fingers quickly.

[Yohei, help! The fox is taking me to your bar! From now on, you don't know me! Don't talk to me!]

The pure black Civic stopped in front of a bar with a dark blue sign. Sakuragi got out of the car and looked at Rukawa, who was locking the car. The close-fitting white shirt had a vague golden sheen in the setting sun. The simple black watch and leather shoulder bag were made of fine material. He pulled the curtain, and through the neon light of silver and pink, the bartender in the black vest waved at the crowd, "Hana, you arrive so early today!"

"You, know him?" Rukawa looked at Sakuragi.

"He knows me, I don't know him." Sakuragi turned his head.

"You sit here for a while. I need to answer a call." Rukawa left.

"Yohei!" Sakuragi pounded the table, "I just texted you from his car!"

"Ah, I was so busy serving guests that I didn't look at my phone. Let me see it now...oh, what are the consequences of talking to you?"

"This is a gay bar! Wouldn't that give him an idea of my sexual orientation!"

"Anyone can come here. And I always think you are the type of person who won't worry about what people think?"

"He's no one else." Sakuragi took lip balm from his bag and put it on his mouth, "I noticed him the first time I chose my group the other day, but I don't want him to think I'm interested in him so soon."

"That's the first time I've seen that reaction in over a decade," Yohei raised his arm and shook his wine, "Hana, if a man shows you his status of minority on your first meeting, would you think he's interested in you?"

"Well, no."

"So don't worry. Now who can guarantee they are not related to minority at all? Even I can't say I'm 100% straight. Wouldn't it be better to let him know sooner?"

"Hmm." Sakuragi put his chin up with his hand. Rukawa came and sat next to him.

"Ah, the couch over there is vacant. You guys can go there, it has perfect view."

Under the pink neon lights, the water curtain surrounding the couch bounced in regular rhythm.

"I ordered for you. The bestseller here." Sakuragi pushed another mojito in front of Rukawa. "So what do you usually do besides playing basketball and games?"

"Driving by myself when traveling, and sleeping." Rukawa stared at the redheaded dancer on the stage. The song ended and the dancer descended slowly from the pole. He took off his military cap and leaned to the edge of the stage to offer flying kisses. People in the audience shoved hundred-dollar bills into his tight leather pants.

"I don't think that's sanitary."

"What?" Sakuragi tilted his head to gaze at the stage, "Oh, they won't care, they're virtual."

"I see."

"The best part is, this bar has intelligent equipment that could recognize your current physical and mental state as well as what you expect, so everyone sees different scenes. Maybe I'm not seeing the same dancer as you!" Sakuragi took a sip from his glass, "If you're asking me why I know so much, it's because I was lucky enough to be involved in research and development of the equipment during my undergraduate studies."

"That's awesome. But it's more like peeping than recognizing." Rukawa pulled his agenda book and pen out of his bag and sketched the dancer in front of him.

The dancer changed his clothes, twisted at the waist and leaned down with his legs spread wide. His muscles had just the right tension. Suddenly, he unbuttoned his checkered skirt and tossed it offstage. The bulging shape under his underpants became visible.

Rukawa touched his abdominal muscles and felt his whole body was on fire.

"You're new here." The dancer jumped down from the stage and narrowed his eyes at Rukawa, "Your face is quite young. Let me see the look there." He lifted his shirt, pressed it against his waist and pulled his panties off with his index finger. "Oh my fucking god! You are truly gifted. Here's my phone number. Keep it and call me when it's convenient for you." The dancer shoved the note into Rukawa's hand, reentered the stage and the audience began to be excited once again.

"Ru-Ka-Wa! Do you want to see something else? It's big here!"

Rukawa came back to his senses and saw Sakuragi in front of him.

"You're completely stunned, hahaha. What's that in your hand?" Sakuragi's smile disappeared as he leaned over to check the contents of the paper. "Ahem, it's... it's already late today, haha... Yohei! Arrange a valet for me and Rukawa."

"OK. Go home and get some rest. You guys have to work tomorrow." Yohei took out a panel and clicked on it, "Arranged. Sendoh is waiting for you at the door."

"So we have two passengers today." Sendoh smiled as he put on his white gloves and opened the door.

"No questions allowed." Sakuragi glared at him, "I designed the movement and duration of you putting on your gloves to reflect your professionalism and attention to detail. I'll disable you tomorrow if you ask."

"Oh, come on, don't get excited. I didn't mean to ask at all. If you don't believe me, go check my record or you can log into my system and delete it. The intelligence has just arranged the route to drop you off first, and then Rukawa."

"Are we on the same route?" Sakuragi laid in the back, "Turn the air condition a little bit colder."

"Your residence is 15-minute away from his. The detection shows that you're not quite in the right state for a colder temperature. Are you sure you want it colder?"

"Hurry up and just turn it, I'm scorching." Sakuragi picked up the magazine behind the seat and waved it.

"Don't turn it." Rukawa reached out his hand and blocked the panel.

"Ah, that's unexpected." Sendoh resumed his initial smile, "Then we'll start navigating."

The three of them didn't speak a word - Rukawa kept seeing the dancer in front of his eyes; Sakuragi got hotter without the cold breeze.

"Sakuragi, we've arrived at your house." Sendoh parked the car right in front of the gate.

"Ah, so fast?... I'll go home and rest then, good night!" He waved at Rukawa.

"Good night." Rukawa watched as Sakuragi and his beautiful house disappeared from view.


	3. 游戏大厅 Game Lobby

“B组跟樱木你的兴趣非常匹配呢。”晴子接过签好字的合同，和樱木握手，“欢迎加入湘北！”  
樱木笑着走出人力办公室。他看了一眼手表，上午10点，距离去组里报到还有4个小时。他坐上了通往顶层的电梯——顶层的游戏大厅可以免费无限次试玩湘北的所有游戏，只有实习生和正式员工才有权限进入。樱木径直走向《斯坦顿岛》的机器，正准备穿戴游戏设备，突然另一只手也放在了同一台设备上。  
“不好意思。”樱木放下了设备。  
“应该说抱歉的是我！”对方从口袋里拿出一套自己的设备，“我是N组的相田彦一。或许我们可以一起玩？”  
“好啊！”樱木重新戴上设备，和彦一点选了进入游戏。  
系统加载完毕，他们站在人行道的边缘。街道尽头是一座铜制公牛像，抬头是被摩天大楼分成多边形的天空。西装革履的男女从他们面前快步走过，眉头紧锁。  
“哎呀，我们挡道了。”彦一把樱木拉回到商店橱窗前。门口停着一辆塔可饼餐车，餐车的屏幕上滚动着实时变动的股票价格。“樱木，你是2020年骄傲计划的暑期实习生吧？你们是不是正在研究AI对人脑性能和表现的优化？”  
“什么优化？”樱木接过彦一买的塔可饼，“你怎么知道我喜欢烤猪肉菠萝味的？”  
“AI模型啊。有了模型，学生可以生成精准匹配工作的简历和求职信，筛出最高频的问题训练面试，用关键词和技能组合匹配到最合适的工作。工作后用AI接口通过接入大量信息进行学习，从而在业务和管理能力上都超过别人。至于塔可饼，我刚才学习了你公开的所有社交平台动态。”  
“先不说饼，”樱木咬了一口塔可饼，“嗯，真好吃！可是管理能力是人的能力，你要怎么通过AI来提升呢？”  
“这些能力表面上说是非人不可，本质上还是从大量信息中快速找到规律。而在这个问题上，机器是完胜人类的。”  
“听你这么说，未来还真可怕。”樱木把塔可饼的包装纸卷成球状投到垃圾桶里，“我可能一开始确实抱着‘想要超过别人’的想法，不过我现在只想专注于自己感兴趣的方向，而我感兴趣的方向并不是让AI超过人类。还有，我不是实习生。”樱木打开列表选择了下线，离开了游戏大厅。“再见，谢谢你的塔可饼！”

樱木在游戏大厅门口的餐厅吃了自助午餐，走向B组的办公区。他刚到办公区，就看到三井和流川在电脑前喝着大杯咖啡。  
“嘿，樱木！”三井拍了怕他的肩膀，转向流川，“今天上午樱木没什么犹豫地就选了咱们组，也算是意料之中。流川你最近的工作量比较少，你当他的mentor帮他快速熟悉工作吧？下午就开始工作怎么样？”  
“嗯。有好几个需要分析的主题，现在就开始吧。”  
樱木俯下身子，找到流川电脑屏幕上待办清单的第一个主题：分析生态环境的变化对玩家游玩时间的影响。  
“这题我会。”樱木示意流川站起来，自己坐下，新建了文档，飞速敲着键盘。“前几天我在河边钓鱼的时候，我有几个发现。第一，鱼咬钩的次数显著变少。这说明水流过快，需要对河流施工的数据以及物品和树木的数量进行修改。第二，浮标反应太小，单次放线钓上鱼的概率也显著下降，说明气候变冷，需要对游戏的初始气温以及促使玩家调节气温的场景进行调整。当然，至于怎样设定咬钩次数和钓上鱼的概率，才能让玩家的游玩时间最长，还需要进一步分析现在游玩时间的正态分布图。不过从直觉的角度，如果我是个忠实玩家，我的游玩时间应该是变少的，这应该归功于那个改动了钓鱼数据的人。”他突然扭过头，“让我猜猜，那个人是不是你？”  
对着樱木的笑容，流川一个字都说不出。  
“我看，趁着修改这些数据的的时候，可以准备上线新活动了。”  
“有新活动。”流川俯下身子点着鼠标，一份图文并茂的计划出现在屏幕上。“综合多个指标判定大于18岁的玩家，可以建设并进入俱乐部。他们还可以加入成人作品创作平台，在俱乐部的联网阅览区互相阅读或者观赏作品。”  
“这个想法绝妙！不过你怎么能确保玩家确实大于18岁，而不只是填写了大于18岁的信息？”  
“我们可以找到他们所有的公开信息。人会公开大量自己的日常信息寻求别人的共鸣，信息永远比他们本人还要了解自己。”  
“那就好，那我先去写详细的报告了。”樱木离开了流川的工位。  
“你和他已经这么熟啦？”三井走过来询问。  
“他经验丰富而已。”

樱木在日历上把7月9日圈了起来，画了几个拉炮，还用艺术字写下“入职一个月纪念”。  
“樱木，你忙吗？”流川的头从斜对面探了过来。  
“不忙，怎么了？”樱木抬起头。  
“跟我去俱乐部，现在。”  
“什么？”  
“我需要看一下数据和系统稳定性。”  
“你说游戏啊！你用测试账号或者去游戏大厅自己看呗。”  
“测试账号给出的反馈只有数据，我还需要真人来反馈试玩感受。你自己说过的，AI不能超过人类。”  
“好吧。”樱木佩戴好设备，和流川一起加入了游戏。  
两人在石板路上快步走着，在漏水的小巷拐了几个弯，下了半层楼走进没有招牌的俱乐部。  
“流川！你今天带了个漂亮的男孩呢。”门口的女人站直了身体，眯起眼睛朝他微笑。樱木瞪了她一眼，输入了管理员代码，打开她的设定，对着代码改了起来。  
“樱木！你今天跟你帅气的男朋友来充电啦。玩得愉快喔！”樱木满意地朝女人点了点头。  
“刚才在干什么？”流川看着跑过来的樱木，“我刚才在看舞者的代码。受你启发，我想我们可以使用传感器，获取玩家玩游戏时的生理和心理数据，给不同舞者设定不同的出现概率。比如说可以这样改……”流川打开舞者的设定，开始修改。

改完几个核心模块后，流川被一串小声的自言自语打断了，他抬起头寻找声音的来源。樱木不知道什么时候跳上了舞台，俯瞰着整个俱乐部，也俯瞰着他。  
“或许人类和AI的对立根本就不存在……世界是造物主在脑内设计的游戏，我们都是帮助造物主体验各种感受的AI。哪天我们死了，我们体验的任务就完成了，我们就回到属于自己的世界了。”  
“怎么突然这么想？”流川朝舞台上喊。  
“过去的一两百年，人类在数学和物理上发现了很多科学原理。”樱木倚在栏杆上，“可如果造物主本来就是按照这些原理创造的这个世界呢？就像我们可以随时调节斯坦顿岛上的生态环境一样。”  
“没有人能确定我们是不是AI。但我知道的是，人死了，那些体验过的感觉就消失了，珍贵的人和物品也没法再拥有了。”  
俱乐部的铁门突然被打开了，两人听到开门声跑过去看。一艘球形的太空船停在门口，船里走出了一个深色皮肤穿着白袍的男人。  
“是流川和樱木吧？跟我来，我此行专程邀请你们访问信息场，帮助解答你们的问题。”  
“信息场？”樱木走近了男人，绕着他观察了一圈，“你是谁？”  
“你可以叫我牧，如果你愿意的话。”  
“去看看吧。”流川搂了一下樱木的腰，两人跟着牧进了飞船。几秒钟后，飞船便在一阵强光中消失了。

"Group B matches your interests perfectly." Haruko took the signed contract and shook Sakuragi's hand, "Welcome to Shohoku!"

Sakuragi smiled and walked out of the office of Human Resources . He looked at his watch, 10:00 a.m., four hours before he need to arrive at his group and check in. He took the elevator to the top floor - the game lobby on the top floor allowed free unlimited trials of all Shohoku's games. Only interns and formal employees have access. Sakuragi walked straight to the machine of Staten Island and was about to put on his gaming device, when suddenly someone put a hand on the same device.

"Excuse me." Sakuragi put down the device.

"I'm the one who should say sorry!" The other person took out a set of his own equipment from his pocket, "I'm Hikoichi Aida from Group N. Maybe we can play together?"

"Okay!" Sakuragi put the device back on and clicked "enter the game" with Hikoichi.

The system loaded and they stood at the edge of the sidewalk. At the end of the street was a bronze statue of a bull. As they looked up at the sky, they found it divided into polygons by skyscrapers. Men and women with fine suits walked quickly past them with their brows locked.

"Oops, we're in the way." Hikoichi pulled Sakuragi back to the store window. A taco truck was parked in the doorway, and its screen was scrolling the real-time stock prices. "Sakuragi, you're a summer intern for the 2020 Pride Plan, right? Are you working on the optimization of AI for features and performances of human brain?"

"What optimization?" Sakuragi took the taco that Hikoichi bought, "How did you know I like the grilled pork and pineapple flavor?"

"The AI model. With the model, students can generate resumes and cover letters that accurately match jobs, sift out the most high-frequency questions to train for interviews, use keywords and skill sets to match the jobs that suit them best. When they start their job, they could learn by accessing a lot of information using the AI interface, so they can outperform others in both business and management skills. As for the taco, I've just studied all public posts of your social platforms."

"Let's not talk about the taco now," Sakuragi took a bite of the taco, "mmm, that's delicious! But the ability to manage is a human ability, how are you going to improve it through AI?"

"These abilities, while seemingly require human work, but essentially they're still about finding patterns quickly from large amounts of information. And on that aspect, machines far outperform humans."

"From what you say, the future is pretty scary." Sakuragi rolled the taco wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the trash can, "I probably did start out with the idea of 'trying to outperform the others' , but now, I just want to focus on the direction I'm interested, which is not making AI surpass humans. Also, I'm not an intern." Sakuragi opened the list, chose to go offline, and left the game lobby. "So long, and thanks for the taco!"

Sakuragi ate a buffet lunch at the restaurant in front of the game lobby and headed to the office area of Group B. As soon as he reached the office area, he saw Mitsui and Rukawa drinking large cups of coffee in front of their computers.

"Hey, Sakuragi!" Mitsui patted him on the shoulder and turned to Rukawa, "This morning, Sakuragi chose our group without hesitation, which is what I expected. You don't have much work recently, how about you become his mentor and help him be familiar with work ASAP? And how about starting work this afternoon?"

"OK. There are several topics that need to be analyzed, so let's get started now."

Sakuragi leaned down to find the first topic on the to-do list on Rukawa's computer screen: analyzing the impact of ecological changes on player's time of playing the game.

"I can answer that question." Sakuragi let Rukawa stand up. He sat down, created a new document and typed rapidly on the keyboard. "When I was fishing in the river the other day, I had a few discoveries. First, the time of fish biting was significantly fewer. This indicates that the water is flowing too fast and that the data on river construction and the number of items and trees need to be revised. Second, the buoy response was too insignificant and the probability of catching a fish on a single release dropped significantly, which indicates the climate has become colder. You need to adjust the initial temperatures for the game as well as the scenarios that prompt players to adjust the temperature. Of course, further analysis on normal distribution plots of of play time is needed, before you could set the number of bites and the probability of catching a fish in order to maximize the player's play time. But intuitively, if I'm a loyal player, my play time should become less, thanks to the one that modified the data for fishing." He suddenly turned his head, "Let me guess, is that person you?"

Seeing Sakuragi's smile, Rukawa couldn't say a word.

"In my opinion, while we're revising these data, we can prepare to launch some new activities."

"There is a new activity." Rukawa leaned down and clicked the mouse. A detailed plan with many pictures and texts appeared on the screen. "Judging by a combination of several indicators, if players are greater than 18 years old, they can build and enter clubs. They can also join the platform of creating mature works and read or view each other's works in the clubs' online reading area."

"This is a brilliant idea! But how do you make sure that the players are indeed older than 18, instead of just filling out information about being older than 18?"

"We can find all their public information. People will present a great deal of information about their daily lives, hoping to resonate with others. Information will always know them better than they themselves do."

"That's good. I'm off to write a detailed report." Sakuragi left Rukawa's work station.

"You know him so well already?" Mitsui came over and asked.

"He's experienced; that's all."

Sakuragi circled July 9 on his calendar, drew a few fireworks, and wrote "one month anniversary of joining the company" in artistic letters.

"Sakuragi, are you busy?" Rukawa's head peeked over from across the computer.

"Not busy, what's up?" Sakuragi looked up.

"Come with me to the club, now."

"What?"

"I need to take a look at the data and system stability."

"You are talking about the game! Use a test account or go to the game lobby and see for yourself."

"The test account gives only data for feedback. I need a real human to give feedback on how it feels. You said it yourself, the AI can't exceed humans."

"Okay." Sakuragi put on the device and joined the game with Rukawa.

They walked briskly down the stone path, turned a few corners in a leaky alley, descended half a flight of stairs and entered a club without a sign.

"Rukawa! You've got a pretty boy with you today." The woman in the doorway stood up straight, narrowed her eyes and smiled at him. Sakuragi glared at her, entered the admin code, found her settings and changed them.

"Sakuragi! You're here to recharge today with your handsome boyfriend. Have fun!" Sakuragi nodded at the woman in satisfaction.

"What were you doing?" Rukawa looked at Sakuragi who ran over, "I was just looking at the dancer's code. Inspired by you, I think we can use sensors to get the physiological and psychological data of the players playing the game, and set different probabilities of their appearing. For example, it could be changed like this... "Rukawa found the dancer's settings and began to modify them.

After changing a few core modules, Rukawa was interrupted by voices talking to themselves, and he looked up to find the source of the noise. Sakuragi jumped onto the stage at some point, looking down on the club and on him.

"Maybe the dichotomy between humans and AI doesn't exist at all...the world is a game designed by the Creator in their head, and we are all AI helping the Creator to experience all kinds of feelings. if we die some day, the mission of our experience is complete, and we return to the world of our own. "

"What makes you think that all of a sudden?" Rukawa shouted towards the stage.

"Over the past hundred and two hundred years, humans have discovered many scientific principles in mathematics and physics." Sakuragi leaned on the railing, "But what if the Creator originally created this world according to those principles? Just like we can always mofify the ecosystem on Staten Island."

"No one can be sure if we're AI or not. but what I do know is that when people die, the feelings they experienced will be gone, and the precious ones and items can no longer be owned."

The iron doors of the club suddenly opened and the two ran over to see when they heard the sound. A spherical space ship was parked in the doorway, and a dark-skinned man in a white robe stepped out of it.

"It's Rukawa and Sakuragi, isn't it? Come with me. I invite you to visit the Information Field to help answer your questions."

"The Information Field?" Sakuragi approached the man and observed him, "Who are you?"

"You can call me Maki, if you like."

"Let's go there and have a look." Rukawa hugged Sakuragi's waist and they followed Maki into the ship. A few seconds later, the ship disappeared in a burst of bright light.


	4. 信息场 Information Field

“为什么选中了我们？”樱木托起下巴，透过窗户欣赏着闪耀的星系。  
“你们对于造物主的探索做出了巨大贡献。你们勇敢、执着，热爱自己的生活。造物主希望你们回到地球后，继续发扬这样的品质，将你们所见到的分享给更多的人，让地球文明得到进一步发展。”牧从口袋里掏出耳塞和眼镜给两人戴上，“这是可穿戴转换设备，可以把电磁感应交流的内容转换成你们可以接收到并理解的形式。”  
飞船降落在信息场的港口。舱门打开，两人沿着走道进入一个大厅。几十个高等智能在面板前操纵着，他们背后的屏幕实时播放着宇宙里不同文明的动态。  
“他们关注的文明有三十几个，”牧带领两人绕大厅一圈，“不过最近他们密切追踪的主要是地球，因为地球出现了一些紧急状况。”  
“他们会干预地球上人类的生活吗？”樱木问。  
“只在及其必要的时候。”  
离开大厅，三人进入到另一个小厅。几个穿着防护设备的智能围绕着一个圆柱状的展台，展台中央是变异的病毒。耳机里传来激烈的讨论声，樱木在嘈杂中听到了“传染性和毒性的最优设定分别是多少”“疫苗应该最先投放到哪个国家”。  
突然，厅内环绕着一阵交响乐，所有智能都停下了动作和争论。  
[朝鲜炸毁位于开城的韩朝联络办公室大楼，目前朝鲜官方尚未就这一消息作出回应。]  
[在中印边境加勒万河谷地区，印军再次越过实控线发动攻击，引发双方激烈肢体冲突，造成人员伤亡。]  
“即使是命运存亡的时刻，人类仍然无法团结。”牧摇了摇头，示意两人继续向前走去。

“再来看看个体吧。”牧带领樱木和流川来到装有环形屏幕的长廊。每个屏幕里故事的主角都是樱木，但他的形象和故事情节都有所不同。“这些是不同平行世界的你，你还可以进入实地模式。我现在选一个跟这个世界的你比较像的。”牧用手势操纵着，几秒后三人置身于屏幕里的小学课堂。  
[樱木同学的理想是什么呢？]留着齐刘海短发的女老师微笑着问道。  
[我的理想，是探索这个世界未知的领域！]  
“你挺厉害。”流川看着穿着小学校服的樱木，又扭过头看了看身旁的樱木。  
“我快进一下，”牧调整着进度条，“中间的情节我大概讲一下吧。高一暑假，你的朋友宫城邀请你去广岛观看全国大赛。在大赛上，你被流川吸引了，你们很快开始交往。上大学之前，你和流川出席了你爸妈的结婚二十周年纪念日，得到了爸妈最真挚的祝福。”  
“等等，你让我仔细看看这一段吧！”  
“嗯，在这个世界里他爸爸已经去世了。”  
“我对你父亲的去世深表遗憾，但你们停留在信息场的时间是极为有限的。你想仔细看这一段的话，我会让我的同事把这段放进你之后几天的梦里，别担心。”牧回退到大合影处暂停了几秒，“我还有更重要的内容给你们看。毕业后你去了公关公司，流川去了研究所。你们在新西兰办理了简单的婚礼，第二年有了两个孩子。”  
“孩子是怎么回事！”  
牧按下暂停，找出几张生理构造图。“在一些平行世界里，男性和女性在演化中趋于相似。两性拥有了和彼此一样的性器官，所以男性也具有了生育功能。社会已经不再将生育当做一种要求，不过少数拥有很多资源的人会把生育当做一种严肃的娱乐，就像玩一款游戏或者喝一杯茶一样。”  
“我能看一看其它世界的我吗？”  
“如果最后时间允许的话可以，不过我建议你不要干涉。否则会造成时间线的紊乱，影响整个宇宙的进化。”  
“哦，原来我的存在有这么大的意义啊。”樱木一边跟着牧和流川，一边浏览着屏幕上不同世界里的自己。突然，屏幕中间出现了一扇门。男人的背影和流川一模一样，他穿着黑色背心，盘坐在软垫上。樱木没有跟牧和流川说，自己拐进了那扇门。

樱木进入房间，凑近了男人的脸仔细看：对方已经有四五十岁。他坐到对面的软垫上，“你是未来的枫？”  
男子摇头，找出一顶红色的鸭舌帽戴上，“再看看我是谁。”  
“你是……井上老师……！”  
“Bingo。”  
“你就是那个创造了我生命和性格的人。”  
“我不是神；除了少数初始的设定，大部分性格都是你自己发展出来的。”  
“可是我发现我性格里有很多别人改写的内容，那些内容让我很不舒服。我讨厌他们！”  
“这样吗？”男人用手势操作着，两人眼前出现了一个多维的坐标轴，“让我们仔细检视一下那些内容吧。”  
男人放大了16岁的时间线，点选了其中一个回忆节点，两人到了一家医院病房里。医生对着安西教练摇了摇头，[我们已经做出了最大的努力，但是樱木君的背伤没有办法恢复了，恐怕他要退出运动生涯了。他充满元气的样子我们大家都记得，所以我更不知道该怎么才能跟他说。]  
“扯淡！井上老师官方指定本大爷代言了知名品牌，你凭什么这样说我！”樱木准备开打，挥动拳头后发现周围的人完全没有反应。  
“你们不在同一个空间，是感知不到对方的。”男人把樱木拉回房间，观察着时间线，“看来你在同一条时间线上有不少完全相反的回忆，大多数的确都是别人加上的。”  
“我想把那些全都删掉。”  
“宇宙的法则不允许你那样做。”  
“这不公平！”  
“创作者给你的时间线添加信息是宇宙所允许的，添加后那些就成为和你相关的信号。但如果基本事实和解读偏离了我原初的设定，就成了噪音。为了更形象地向你说明，给你看看流川的时间线吧，你应该会好奇。”  
男人在面板上操纵着，流川的360度裸体和对应的编码出现在屏幕上。  
“他的身体很棒吧？”男人对着看呆了的樱木轻笑，“造物主的初始设定，简洁而优美。而一些别人添加的部分就是另外一番模样了。”他找到流川的时间线，随便点开一个回忆。仙道的脸出现在屏幕上，他还没开口，樱木就捏住男人的肩膀使劲摇晃，“停！停！！！快点删了！”  
男人点击暂停，回到时间线，把几个回忆放进了回收站。“抱歉给你看了这样的回忆。要我来说，说是丑陋都不为过。我想说明的是，你是我创作出来的完整形象。没有人能够永久消灭宇宙的信息，但你作为一个高度发达的智能，你有能力判断出哪些是信号，哪些是噪音。哪些是你值得投入的，哪些是可以忽略的。然后，按照你认为忠于你自己的方式生活。这就是作为宇宙公民的责任感。”男人收起了时间线，“我要说的就是这么多；很高兴在信息场遇见你。”

“你在这里干什么？”听到流川的声音，樱木回过头。  
“我刚才见到了井上老师……”樱木再回去看，男人已经消失了。  
“他和你说了什么？”  
“没什么。”  
“是吗？我刚才观摩了改造病毒的全过程，很有趣。”看到樱木没有回答，他把手背覆上樱木的额头，“你没什么精神。不舒服吗？”  
“我现在心里很乱！”樱木甩开他的手，快步走了出去。  
“你刚才到底看到什么了？”流川紧追着他，“你要干什么，樱木！这里不是地球，你随便操作会有生命危险的！”眼看樱木朝面前的一扇大门越来越近，流川深吸了一口气，对准樱木的下半身使劲踢了一脚。樱木惨叫了一声，重重地倒在地上。  
“抱歉，”流川对着牧鞠躬，“希望他能快点恢复。”  
“你阻止得正是时候，”牧点了点头，“你甚至先于我阻止了他，很厉害。”  
“多亏了这副眼镜。那扇门给我不好的预感。”  
“你的直觉非常正确。如果强行打开那扇门，人体会由于电磁场过强瞬间死亡。我现在对他执行几步操作，他几秒钟就可以恢复健康。”

"Why did you pick us?" Sakuragi lifted his chin and appreciated the shining galaxy through the window.

"You have made a great contribution to the exploration of the Creator. You are brave, persistent, and love your lives. The Creator hopes that when you return to Earth, you will continue to promote these qualities and share what you have seen with more people, so that Earth's civilization will be further developed." Maki pulled earplugs and glasses out of his pocket and let the two wear them, "These are wearable conversion devices that can convert what are communicated electromagnetically into what you can receive and understand."

The spaceship landed in a port of the information field. The door opened and the two men followed the walkway into a hall. Dozens of highly intelligent creatures were maneuvering in front of panels. The screens behind them were broadcasting real-time dynamics of different civilizations in the universe.

"They are following over three dozen civilizations," Maki led the two around the hall, "but it's mainly Earth they've been tracking closely lately, because there are some emergency situations on Earth."

"Will they interfere with the lives of humans on Earth?" Sakuragi asked.

"Only when it is extremely necessary."

Leaving the hall, the trio entered another small hall. Several intelligent creatures in protective gear surrounded a cylindrical booth with a mutated virus in the center. There was a heated discussion over the headphones, and Sakuragi heard over the noise, "What are the optimal settings for infectiousness and virulence respectively?" "Which country should receive vaccine first?"

Suddenly, a symphony surrounded the hall and all intelligent creatures stopped moving and arguing.

[DPRK blows up the inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, and there has been no official response from DPRK to the news.]

[In the Garhwan Valley area of the China-India border, the Indian army once again crossed the Line of Actual Control to launch an attack, triggering a fierce physical confrontation between the two sides, resulting in human casualties.]

"Even at the moment of survival of destiny, humans still cannot unite." Maki shook his head, gesturing for the two to move on.

"Let's look at the individuals again." Maki led Sakuragi and Rukawa to a gallery with circular screens. The main character of the story in each screen was Sakuragi, but his images and storylines were different. "These are different parallel worlds for you, and you can also go into field mode. I'm going to pick one that's more like you from this world." Maki maneuvered with a hand gesture, and a few seconds later the three of them were in an elementary school classroom in the screen.

[What is Sakuragi-san's dream?] The female teacher with short hair and bangs asked with a smile.

[My dream is to explore the unknown territory of this world!]

"You're pretty good." Rukawa looked at the Sakuragi in his elementary school uniform, and then turned his head to look at the Sakuragi by his side.

"Let me fast-forward a bit," Maki adjusted the progress bar, "and I'll tell you about the middle of the story. During the summer of your first year of high school, your friend Miyagi invited you to Hiroshima to watch the Inter-High. At the competition, you are attracted to Rukawa and you guys soon start dating. Before you went to college, you and Rukawa attended your parents' twentieth wedding anniversary and received their best wishes."

"Wait, let me take a closer look at that part!"

"Well, in this world his father has passed away."

"I am deeply sorry for your father's loss, but the time you remain in the information field is extremely limited. I'll have my colleague put this into your dreams a few days afterwards if you want to look at this part closely, so don't worry." Maki went back to the part with a large group photo and paused for a few seconds, "I have something more important to show you. After graduation you went to a PR firm and Rukawa went to graduate institute. You had a simple wedding in New Zealand, and the next year you had two children."

"What do you mean by children!"

Maki pressed pause and found some pictures of physiology. "In some parallel worlds, males and females tend to be similar in evolution. The two sexes have the same sexual organs as each other, so males also have the ability to reproduce. Society no longer treats procreation as a requirement, though a few with many resources will treat it as serious entertainment, just like playing a game or having a cup of tea."

"Can I see the other worlds of me?"

"If time permits, yes, but I suggest you do not interfere. Otherwise it will cause a disruption in the timeline and affect the evolution of the entire universe."

"Oh, so my existence has that much meaning." While following Maki and Rukawa, Sakuragi browsed through the different worlds of himself on the screen. Suddenly, a door appeared in the middle of the screen. The man's back was identical to Rukawa's. He was wearing a black vest and sitting on a cushion. Without speaking to Maki and Rukawa, Sakuragi turned and went into that door himself.

Sakuragi entered the room and leaned close to the man's face for a closer look: The man was forty or fifty years old. Sakuragi sat on the cushion across from him, "Are you the future Kaede?"

The man shook his head, found a red cap and put the cap on, "See again who I am."

"You're... Inoue-sensei...!"

"Bingo."

"You are the one who created my life and personality."

"I'm not a god; you developed most of your personality, except for a few initial settings."

"But I've found that my character is full of rewrites from others, and those make me uncomfortable. I hate them!"

"Like this?" The man gestured with his hands and a multi-dimensional axis appeared in front of the two men, "Let's examine those carefully."

The man zoomed in on the 16-year-old timeline, tapped on one of the memory nodes, and the two went to a hospital room. The doctor shook his head at Coach Anzai, [We've done our best, but there's no way for Sakuragi-kun's back injury to recover. I'm afraid he's going to retire from his sporting career. He's full of energy as we all remember, so I'm even less sure how I can tell him that.]

"Bullshit! Inoue-sensei has officially appointed me to endorse a well-known brand, so how could you say that to me!" Sakuragi prepared to start the fight, but after swinging his fist he found that the people around him didn't respond.

"You are not in the same space, so you can't sense each other." The man pulled Sakuragi back into the room and observeed the timeline, "It seems you have quite a few completely opposite memories in the same timeline, most of them were all added by others indeed."

"I want to delete all of those."

"The laws of the universe won't allow you to do that."

"That's not fair!"

"The creators added information to your timeline and that was allowed by the universe. When they are added, those become signals that are relevant to you. However, if the basic facts and interpretations deviate from my original setup, they become noise. To illustrate this to you more graphically, let me show you the timeline of Rukawa. You should be curious."

The man maneuvered around the panel. Rukawa's 360-degree naked body and the corresponding codes appeared on the screen.

"He's got a great body, doesn't he?" The man smiled softly at the stunned Sakuragi, "The initial setting of the Creator is simple and beautiful. However, some parts that others have added are something completely different." He found Rukawa's timeline and clicked on a random memory. Sendoh's face appeared on the screen, and before he could speak, Sakuragi squeezed the man's shoulders and shook him hard, "Stop! Stop!! Delete it NOW!"

The man clicked pause, went back to the timeline, and put a few memories in the recycle bin. "Sorry to show you memories like that. If you ask me, describing them as ugly is even a compliment. I want to make it clear that you are a complete image I created. No one can permanently destroy the information of the universe, but you, being a highly developed intelligence, have the ability to determine which are signals and which are noises, what are things worth devoting yourself in and what are things you can ignore. And then, live your life in a way that you believe is true to yourself. That's the sense of responsibility of being a citizen of the universe." The man put away the timeline, "That's all I have to say; I'm glad to meet you at the Information Field."

"What are you doing here?" Hearing Rukawa's voice, Sakuragi turned back.

"I just saw Inoue-sensei..." the man had disappeared when Sakuragi went back to look again.

"What did he say to you?"

"Nothing."

"Really? I just observed the whole process of transforming the virus, and it was very interesting." Seeing Sakuragi didn't respond, he cupped the back of his hand over Sakuragi's forehead, "You're not very energetic. Are you uncomfortable?"

"I'm so confused right now!" Sakuragi shook off his hand and walked out with fast pace.

"What the hell did you just see?" Rukawa pressed after him, "What are you doing, Sakuragi! This isn't Earth, and you'll risk your life if you operate casually!" Seeing Sakuragi getting closer and closer towards a gate in front of him, Rukawa took a deep breath and kicked Sakuragi hard in the lower half of his body. Sakuragi screamed and fell heavily to the ground.

"I'm sorry," Rukawa bowed to Maki, "I hope he recovers quickly."

"You stopped him just in time," Maki nodded, "You even stopped him before me. That's very impressive."

"Thanks to the glasses. That door gave me a bad vibe."

"Your instincts were very correct. If he force that door open, the human body will die instantly due to an overpowering electromagnetic field. I'll perform a few steps on him now and he'll recover in a few seconds."


	5. 正四面体 Triangular Pyramid

流川恢复意识的时候，发现自己已经从游戏里退了出来，设备上闪烁的红灯显示电量不足。樱木的设备在桌上放着，人却不见了。流川打了几个电话，也发了消息，没有收到任何回复。他盯了几秒毫无反应的屏幕，突然放下手机，打开电脑运行了一个程序，屏幕上瞬间出现办公区所有摄像头的监控录像。  
录像里的樱木拿掉设备，双臂抱着头。他突然拉开椅子坐在电脑前打了一段话，然后安静地离开。流川打开樱木的电脑，输入密码进入桌面。在满屏的文件里，他很快找到了修改时间是今天凌晨的文档。  
[枫，  
我不总是一个那么坦诚的人，但是谢谢你救我。我对自己不负责任的行为表示抱歉，经过牧的修复操作，我已经恢复健康。  
我没有叫醒你，是因为我不知道从哪里跟你讲起。在那个房间里，我看到了自己时间线上的回忆，其中的一些令我不安。我不能接受自己因为伤病无法再打篮球，不能接受我们彼此和其他的人在一起。只是简单的想一想，我都做不到。可是这些互相矛盾的回忆，真实地共存在我的身体里。这让我感到愤怒，难道我只是别人发泄他们自己意志和情绪的工具吗？凭什么是我？信号啊噪音的，这些对于我太难承受了。  
所以我给你写邮件，也是想请个假。事实上，我想把我三十天的年假都用完。别跟我说斯坦顿岛还没做完；如果我上午离职，公司下午马上就能从简历里找到迫不及待想要加入的伯克利毕业生。我要去探究一个非常重要的问题——我到底是谁。在我找到答案之前，不要来找我。  
你的，  
花花]  
没有在文档里发现樱木的行踪，流川继续调出大楼和公司门口的监控视频。红头发的年轻人发动纯黑色的特斯拉，开着最大的速度消失在公路上。流川挠了挠头，拨通了泽北的电话。  
“泽北警官……我是流川。不是紧急情况我不会来找你，不过你能帮我查一个人的位置吗？算我欠你一个人情。”

放下电话，流川直奔机场，买了当天最早的机票飞往纽约。飞机落地，他跑向租车柜台，沿着278号公路驶过纽约湾，在一个棒球场门口停下，查看手机定位——坐标和泽北提供的地址一致，球场看台和曼岛下城区隔河相望。他扫视看台一眼就发现了樱木：他坐在看台最后，右侧的座椅上摆了一大盒能量棒。他的膝盖上放着面板，银白色的代码不断浮现在漆黑的屏幕上。  
“在做什么？”流川在樱木左边的座位轻轻坐下。  
“我说了，不要来找我。”樱木没有抬头看他。  
“我不需要辩解来判断你需不需要我。”  
樱木抬起头，揉了揉流川的头发，“丑死了。”  
“因为急着找你。”流川稍微挪了挪身子，离樱木更近了点。  
“我不是说时间线上的回忆很乱吗？”樱木把面板往两人中间摆，“所以我集中精神把每个回忆都复制并提取了出来，分别放在这个坐标系的不同维度里。你看到了吗？”樱木用手势旋转着坐标，“它们组成了一张松散的网，但核心区域正在变得清晰起来。”  
“勇敢，智慧，执着。”  
“还有爱。”樱木点了几个按钮，坐标中的点组成了图形，从面板的顶端输出。樱木取出图形，递给了流川。  
“完美的正四面体。”流川把图形拿在手里旋转着，“是造物主的初始设定，更是你在进化中通过意志不断强化的结果。”  
“造物主和我们，两者本是一体。”樱木注视着对岸的摩天大楼，“按照自己的规则，它创造了政治，创造了金融，创造了艺术。”  
“创造了你的感觉，创造了我对你的感觉。”流川把手覆上了樱木的大腿。  
“我不知道……”  
“探索这个世界上自己不知道的事情，”流川侧过头亲吻樱木的脸颊，“这不是你的理想吗？这不也是造物主创造出我们的意义吗？那些编好了但是你不知道的情节，不是也很有意思吗？”  
“嗯……”樱木的眼神躲闪着。  
“怎么了？身体不舒服？”  
“我在飞机上梦到我参加爸妈结婚20周年纪念。”  
“就是牧跟你说的那个梦。”流川坐正了，“你可以准备好了再跟我讲。”  
樱木伸出左手紧握流川的右手，两人沉默了几分钟。  
“我昨天也做了一个梦，”流川用手指轻轻划着樱木的手心，“我梦到了井上老师。”  
“他说什么了？”  
“他把我的时间线展开给我看。我问他，能不能再让我看看3000年的世界？他说可以。我看到我和你在更高等的宇宙里，以电磁的形式相遇、做爱。”  
“你个死恋物癖！”樱木笑出声，“根本不是梦吧！”  
“不过关于你在邮件里问的问题，我知道答案。”  
“真的吗？”  
“你不是发泄的工具。”流川直视着樱木的双眼，“去让他们看到，你究竟是谁。”  
“好。”  
“既然你来了，咱们可以一起在纽约度个假。有个现代艺术的展挺有意思的，你想去看吗？”  
“嗯！看完展可以去我知道的一个更有意思的地方。”

两人从艺术馆出来，打车来到一家俱乐部门口。樱木笑着跟门口的服务生聊了几句，服务生带领两人在红唇形状的沙发上坐下，周围的感应灯依次亮了起来。  
“你认识他？”流川扭过头看着走远的服务生。  
“这家是量子酒吧的分店。店长都是我从小就认识的兄弟，还有两家分店在东京和上海。哇，太精彩了！你看舞者的橡胶衣！天哪，我疯了！！”  
“每个人看到的舞者不一样吧。”流川也目不转睛地盯着舞台，“你看到的是谁？把他画下来。”  
“不用画了，”樱木挪了挪身子，把腿放在沙发上，抚摸着流川的上半身，“真人就在我旁边，我为什么要画虚拟的。”  
“想做就快点和真人做，过时不候。”流川把手伸向樱木的下半身，手指沿着臀缝插入又抽出。

When Rukawa regained consciousness, he found himself quitted the game. The flashing red light on his device was indicating low battery. Sakuragi's device was on the table, but he was gone. Rukawa made a few calls and sent messages, but received no response. After staring at the quiet screen for a few seconds, he abruptly put the phone down, turned on the computerand ran a program. The surveillance footage from all the cameras of the office area instantly appeared on the screen.

In the video, Sakuragi removed the device and held his head in his arms. Suddenly, he pulled out his chair, sat in front of his computer, typed a paragraph and quietly left. Rukawa opened Sakuragi's computer and entered the password to access the desktop. In the full screen of files, he quickly found the document modified early this morning.

[Kaede,]

[I'm not always an honest person, but thank you for saving me. I apologize for my irresponsible behavior, and I'm healthy again after Maki's repairing operation.]

[I didn't wake you up because I didn't know where to begin with. In that room, I saw memories from my own timeline, some of which disturbed me. I couldn't accept the fact that I can't play basketball anymore because of my injury, or that one of us is in relationship with another person. I can't think about it. However, these conflicting memories truly co-exist in my body. It made me angry: Am I just a tool for others to express their own will and emotions? Why me? The signals and the noises, they are too much for me to accept.]

[That's why I'm writing to you. I'm also taking a leave of absence. In fact, I'd like to use up all of my thirty days of annual leave. Don't tell me that Staten Island isn't done yet; if I leave in the morning, the company will immediately find some fresh grad at Berkeley from a pile of resumes in the afternoon who can't wait to join us. I'm going to explore a very important question - who am I, really. Don't find me until I find the answer.]

[Yours,]

[Hana]

Not finding Sakuragi's routes in the file, Rukawa continued to watch the surveillance video of the building and the company's entrance. The young redhead started the pure black Tesla and disappeared down the highway at maximum speed. Rukawa scratched his head and dialed Sawakita's phone.

"Officer Sawakita...this is Rukawa. I won't come to you if it's not an emergency, but can you check the location of someone for me? I owe you a favor."

Putting the phone down, Rukawa went straight to the airport. He bought the earliest flight of the day to New York, ran to the rental car counter as soon as the plane landed, drove down Route 278 across New York Bay and stopped in front of a baseball court to check his phone location. The coordinates matched the address provided by Sawakita, and the stadium stood across the river from Lower Manhattan. He glanced at the stands and soon spotted Sakuragi: He was sitting at the end of the stands with a large box of energy bars on the seat to his right. He had the panel on his lap, and the silver-colored code kept coming up on the dark screen.

"What are you doing?" Rukawa sat down gently in the seat to Sakuragi's left.

"I told you not to find me." Sakuragi didn't look up at him.

"I don't need your defense to determine whether you need me."

Sakuragi looked up and ruffled Rukawa's hair, "ugly."

"I'm in a hurry to find you." Rukawa moved a little closer to Sakuragi.

"Previously I said the memories on the timeline was a mess." Sakuragi positioned the panel between the two, "So I concentrated to copy and extract each of the memories and placed them separately in different dimensions of the coordinate system. Do you see that?" Sakuragi rotated the coordinates with a gesture, "They form a loose web, but the core area is becoming clearer."

"Bravery, intelligence and persistence."

"And love." Sakuragi tapped a few buttons. The points in the coordinates formed a geometric shape and had an output from the top of the panel. Sakuragi took the geometric shape and handed it to Rukawa.

"A perfect tetrahedron." Rukawa took the shape in his hand and spun it around, "It is the initial setting of the Creator, and the result of constantly reinforcing your will in evolution. "

"The Creator and us, the two are supposed to be one." Sakuragi gazed at the skyscrapers on the other side of the river, "By its own rules, it created politics, it created finance and it created art."

"It created the way you feel, and the way I feel about you." Rukawa cupped his hand over Sakuragi's thigh.

"I don't know..."

"Exploring the things you don't know about the world," Rukawa kissed Sakuragi's cheek on the side of his head, "isn't that your ideal? Isn't that what the Creator created us for? Those plots that are made up but you don't know yet, aren't they interesting too?"

"Well..." Sakuragi dodged his sight.

"What? You don't feel well?"

"On the plane, I dreamed that I was attending Mom and Dad's 20th wedding anniversary."

"That's the dream Maki told you about." Rukawa sat upright, "You can tell me about it when you're ready."

Sakuragi reached out his left hand and clasped Rukawa's right hand. They were silent for a few minutes.

"I also had a dream yesterday," Rukawa gently ran his fingers over Sakuragi's hand, "I dreamed about Inoue Sensei."

"What did he say?"

"He unfolded my timeline to me. I asked him if he could show me the world in the year 3000. He said yes. I saw you and I in an electromagnetic form in a higher-level universe, meeting each other and making love."

"You're fucking fetish!" Sakuragi laughed out loud, "I don't believe it's a dream at all!"

"But about the question you asked in your email, I know the answer."

"Really?"

"You're not a tool for others' expressing." Rukawa looked straight into Sakuragi's eyes, "Go show them who you really are."

"OK."

"Now that you're here, we can take a vacation together in New York. There's a pretty interesting modern art exhibition. Do you want to go and see it?"

"I'd love to! I know a more interesting place and we can go there after the exhibition."

The two went out from the art gallery and took a taxi to the entrance of a club. Sakuragi smiled and chatted with the waiter at the door, who led them to sit down on a couch in the shape of a red lip. The surrounding sensor lights lightened up.

"You know him?" Rukawa turned his head to look at the waiter walking away.

"This is a branch of the Quantum Bar. I've known the manager since I was a kid and he is like my brother. There are two more branches in Tokyo and Shanghai. Wow, that's brilliant! Look at the dancer's latex suit! Oh God, I'm crazy!!!"

"I assume everyone sees a different dancer." Rukawa also stared at the stage without looking away, "Who do you see? Draw him."

"There's no need to draw," Sakuragi moved his body, put his legs on the couch and touched the top half of Rukawa's body, "The real person is right next to me. Why do I need to draw the virtual one?"

"If you want to make love, make it with the real person quickly. I will not wait for you." Rukawa reached down to Sakuragi's lower half, inserting and withdrawing his fingers along his buttocks.


	6. 完美的他 Perfect Him

穿着警察制服、戴着飞行员墨镜的流川站在樱木面前。樱木刚想问他是从哪来的，嘴被对方的手捂住了。[室内有窃听器，上车]流川把手机屏幕拿给樱木看，拉着他往外走。  
“有人追杀你。”流川把樱木放在副驾驶，给他系好安全带，发动了警车。  
“谁啊？为什么他们要追杀我？”  
“粉丝。具体你去谷歌吧。”  
樱木掏出手机谷歌了自己的名字，第一条新闻就是[大热影星樱木花道被偷拍到和恋人共进晚餐，狂热粉丝拒绝接受做出过激行为]。刚想继续看正文，视线突然跟着警车剧烈颠簸起来。流川设置成自动驾驶，从皮带里掏出抢，打开天窗站了起来，朝着后面的车子双手射击，“坐稳了！”听着不断的枪声，樱木睁大双眼尖叫着。  
警车在小巷里拐了几个弯，一开始尾随的几辆汽车不见了。流川停了车，前面停着一架直升机，背后是清晨忙碌的港口。他打开门，拿出装备开始穿戴，“上去。”  
“你还会开直升机？我不记得我有开发这个情节和技能！”  
“你给我设定的[学习][酷帅]性能都是最大值，你忘了？快点上去。”  
“哦！这个情节好像确实是根据我输入的元素和素材智能生成的，嘿嘿。”樱木上了直升机。

直升机在一个依山傍水的港口降落。还没停稳的时候樱木就被周围的景色吸引了，等直升机一开门，他便先跳了下去。闻着树木的味道，他跨过小溪，来到一座深红色的小木屋。  
“好久没有接触大自然了，能在这样的地方生活多好。流川你说是吧。嘿，还有小松鼠，吃得真肥，还不怕人。……流川你人呢？”他回头看了看，又绕着木屋周围转了几圈，没找到流川，却发现屋里有双眼睛透过窗户盯着他。  
他快步走向门口，拉开门一看，是个小酒吧。吧台边坐着一个穿着黑色紧身橡胶衣的男人。  
“不是吧，这么快就换好装了？”他仔细看着男人的脸，和流川一模一样。  
“不明白你在说什么。”  
“别那样盯着我，我不舒服。”樱木伸出手在流川的脸颊摸着，找到耳朵后面的一个地方长按，“G值太高了，先调到75试试吧。”  
“你可以直接跟我传递电磁波的，我可以识别。”  
“自己动手操作比较有感觉。”  
“是吗？那你来摸我。”流川把身子往前倾了倾，“你会更有感觉的。我也来摸你。”

“嗯……”樱木微微睁开双眼。开着暗粉色灯光的套房，是洋平受他启发，跟设计团队讨论了几个月确定的。他摸了摸下半身，冰凉的精液射得到处都是，上半身的酸痛感也逐渐恢复了。稍微低下头一看，流川轻轻咬着他的脖子。  
“你今天真性感。”流川把手从樱木的腰拿开，抚上他通红的脸，“我不在的时候你自己看视频了？”  
“没……幻觉……”樱木大口呼吸着，失神地盯着天花板，“幻觉里还有幻觉……”  
“什么幻觉？”  
“你是警察，护送我去了一个岛，然后引诱我……”  
“是不是引诱先不说，”流川挪了挪身子，双臂撑在樱木正上方，直视着他的双眼，“你在用游戏里的你来强化现实中的你的高潮的感觉。那是最真实的你，不是幻觉。”  
樱木呆呆地看着他，点了点头。  
“造物主把精力分到人身上，让人去体验。你把精力分到智能上，让智能去体验。是这样吗？你可真是个天才。”  
“……哼哼。”  
“所以，咱们去量子酒吧那次，扒我内裤的是你？”  
“哪一次？”  
“哦！我他妈的上帝！”流川突然学着樱木的语气，一边把手伸到樱木的下半身，给他撸动着，“你真是天赋异禀！”  
”啊……有我的意识在……所以……”  
“所以他那么骚对吗？”流川逐渐加大力度撸动着，直到最后一点精液缓缓顺着性器流了下来才停下动作。

“枫。”  
“？”流川感到手被握紧了。  
“想跟你说说我对游戏的想法。”  
“你说。”流川侧过头，注视着盯着天花板的樱木。  
“很多人觉得，跟智能相比，人和人沟通的温暖和感动是不可替代的。你是这样认为的吗？”  
“你现在很感动吗？”  
“我是说媒体里说的那种啦！”樱木轻轻捏了一下流川的手心，“那种‘人工智能永远不能取代人’的说法。”  
“那个说法有点绝对了。”  
“是吧，我也觉得。我仔细想了想，所谓人和人的温暖的感动是从哪里来的呢？用人话讲，就是同理心。不用人话讲，就是接收对方的信息，比如说情绪和想法，然后按照特定的算法处理信息，比如说尊重，然后用特定的语言和行为模式输出信息。智能只要在科学家尤其是心理学家的指导下，从海量信息中学习一段时间，我觉得这并不难实现。”  
“有道理。”流川点头。  
“现在哪个公司都声称自己提供的是有温度的服务。”  
“听多了挺恶心的。”  
“我也是！我自己作为开发者，我觉得以人类的构造来说真的很难，智能来提供反而更加可靠。更别说现在已经没有纯人类了。”  
“纯人类？”  
“我前几天看了一篇文章，说宇宙里一共有56种外星人，我们身上都有外星人的血。也许咱们都是混血！”  
“有什么办法能知道自己是哪几种外星人的混血吗？”流川侧过身，用舌头打开樱木的嘴，“比如说，让我进到你身体里仔细看看？”  
“如果真的是外星人的话，那么我们会知道的。”樱木也闭上双眼，伸出舌头回应着，“我们一定会知道的……嗯……”

Wearing a police uniform and a pair of aviator sunglasses, Rukawa stood in front of Sakuragi. Sakuragi was about to ask where he was from, when his mouth was covered by the Rukawa's hand. [There's a bug in the room, get in the car] Rukawa showed Sakuragi the phone screen and pulled him outside.

"Someone's after you." Rukawa put Sakuragi on the passenger side, buckled him in, and started the police car.

"Who is it? Why are they after me?"

"Fans. You can Google the details."

Sakuragi pulled out his phone and Googled his name. The first news title was [Super-hot movie star Sakuragi Hanamichi was secretly photographed having dinner with his lover, fanatic fan refused to accept and did drastic acts]. Just as he was going to continue reading the text, his vision suddenly began to shake violently following the police car. Rukawa set the auto driving, pulled the gun out of his belt, opened the sunroof, stood up and shot with both hands at the car behind him, "Sit tight!" Listening the constant sound of gunfire, Sakuragi screamed with wide eyes.

The police car made a few turns in the alley, and the few cars that had been trailing disappeared. Rukawa parked the car and a helicopter stood in front of him at a busy port in the early morning. He opened the door, took out his gear and began to put it on, "Go aboard."

"You know how to fly a helicopter? I don't remember developing that plot or skill!"

"You've set my [learning] and [cool] at maximum value, did you forget about it? Hurry up."

"Oh! The plot does seem to have been intelligently generated based on the elements and materials I entered, lol." Sakuragi got into the helicopter.

The helicopter landed at a port nestled in the mountains. Sakuragi was drawn to the surrounding scenery before the helicopter stopped. As soon as the door opened, he jumped. Smelling the scent of trees, he crossed the creek and arrived at a crimson cabin.

"It's been so long since I've been in touch with nature. How nice to live in a place like this. Rukawa, do you feel the same? Hey, there's small squirrels here. They are so fat and aren't afraid of me. ...Rukawa, where are you?" He looked back and circled around the cabin a few more times. He didn't find Rukawa, but he discovered someone was staring at him through the window.

He quickly walked towards the door and pulled it open. It was a small pub. A man in a tight black latex suit sat at the bar.

"No way, you got dressed so quickly?" Sakuragi looked closely at the man's face, which was identical to Rukawa's.

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Don't stare at me like that, I'm uncomfortable." Sakuragi reached out, touched Rukawa's cheek, found a spot behind his ear and pressed it long, "The G-value is too high. Try 75 first."

"You can transmit electromagnetic waves directly to me. I can identify it."

"It feels better to operate it myself."

"Yeah? Then touch me." Rukawa leaned forward, "You'll feel even better. I'll touch you too."

"Hmmm...," Sakuragi opened his eyes slightly. The suite with dark pink lights was something Yohei had been inspired by him and had discussed with the design team for months before confirming everything. He touched the lower half of his body. Cold cum was shot everywhere, and the soreness in his upper body was returning. Looking down a little, Rukawa was gently biting his neck.

"You're so sexy today." Rukawa removed his hands from Sakuragi's waist and caressed his flushed face, "Did you watch the video yourself while I was gone?"

"No... illusions..." Sakuragi breathed violently and stared at the ceiling in disorientation, "There are still illusions in illusions......."

"What illusions?"

"You were a cop, you escorted me to an island, and then seducted me..."

"Whether it's seduction or not," Rukawa moved over, put his arms directly above Sakuragi and looked him straight in the eyes, "you're using yourself in the game to enhance the feeling of your orgasm in reality. That's the real you, not illusions."

Sakuragi looked at him and nodded.

"The Creator divided its energy, assigned the parts to people and let people to experience it. You divided your energy, assigned them to intelligences and let them to experience it. Is that right? You're a genius."

"...Yeah."

"So, the time we went to the Quantum Bar, you were the one who pulled my panties?"

"Which time?"

"Oh! My fucking God!" Rukawa suddenly followed Sakuragi's tone of voice, put his hand on Sakuragi's lower half and jerked him off, "You're so gifted!"

"Ah...there's my consciousness...so..."

"So he had such sexual appeal right?" Rukawa gradually increased the force of his jerking until the last bit of semen slowly flowed down Sakuragi's penis.

"Kaede."

"?" Rukawa felt his hand was tightly gripped.

"I want to talk to you about my thoughts on the game."

"Tell me about it." Rukawa looked over his shoulder, gazing at Sakuragi who was staring at the ceiling.

"Many people feel that there is no substitute for the warmth and touching felling of human communication compared to intelligence. Is that what you think?"

"Are you moved now?"

"I mean the kind of thing you hear about in the media." Sakuragi gently squeezed Rukawa's hand, "That 'artificial intelligence can never replace people' argument."

"That statement is a bit absolute."

"Yeah, I think so too. I thought about it carefully. Where do the so-called warmth and touching feeling between people come from? In human languages, it's empathy. In non-human languages, it's receiving information from the other person, such as emotions and thoughts, and then processing that information according to a specific algorithm, such as respect, and then outputting that information in a specific language and behavior pattern. Intelligence just needs to learn from the vast amount of information for a while under the guidance of scientists, especially psychologists, and I don't think it's that hard to achieve."

"Makes sense." Rukawa nodded.

"Every company now claims to be providing a service with warmth."

"It's pretty disgusting to hear that frequently."

"Me too! As a developer myself, I find it really hard in terms of humans, and it's more reliable for intelligence to provide it instead. Not to mention the fact that there are no pure humans anymore."

"Pure humans?"

"I read an article the other day that said there are 56 species of aliens in the universe and we all have alien blood in us. Maybe we're all hybrids!"

"Is there any way to know what kinds of alien hybrids we are?" Rukawa turned on his side and opened Sakuragi's mouth with his tongue, "Like, let me come inside you and take a closer look?"

"If we are really aliens, we'll know." Sakuragi also closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue in response, "We'll definitely know... hmmm..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I saw DeepL translated "骚" to "slutty", l shook my head. How could I, a feminist that supports gender equality, agree with the translation! I googled its English meaning and changed it to "have sexual appeal". That was the moment I want to share my thoughts during Chinese-English translation.
> 
> As someone who majored in English in college, contrary to many people's thoughts (English major students are all future translators and interpreters), I found translation and interpretation totally unattractive. I don't like to do things that are not creative. Just like the movie Hidden Figures, translators and interpretors are often hidden figures in business operations, especially in China. They shoulder important responsibilities, but they often receive low salary or they couldn't take the credit they deserve.
> 
> It was when I translated solely for my interests, instead of for money or for passing exams, that I felt the value of translation. It means letting users of another language see and understand what I want to express. In the era which we are getting farther from globalization (COVID-19, the divorce of Sino-US relation, etc.), fanfiction is a land of treasure where I could find resonance from someone who might come from very far places where I couldn't think of. I give my heartfelt thanks to the fanfiction world.


	7. 最新更新 Latest Update

“进入信息交换中心的概率和被外星人访问的概率，调好了吗？”流川一边说话一边敲键盘。  
“调好了，我刚才参考科学家的观测、可能的用户数量和咱们写好的报告算出来了，我推测这个数值比较合理。”樱木拿过草稿纸，指着最后一步的数字给流川看。  
“好。先保存吧，咱们进去看一下。争取今天发布游戏，明天又得上班。”  
“是啊~”  
两人站起来，穿戴好设备，进入游戏。汽车行驶在空旷的车道上，两侧车窗上的雨滴和窗外青翠的树木都飞速地后退着。樱木查看导航，“再开10分钟就到咱们设定的服务中心了。”  
“我们去见一见水户洋平。”  
“当然正式版本里可能得给他改个名字。”  
车子在服务中心门口停下。樱木撑开一把黑色雨伞，和流川打着伞走了进去。  
“是樱木和流川啊。”洋平擦着酒杯微笑着，“你们来得真早。伞放在那个筐里，马上就可以干。”  
“我们不是来喝酒的。”樱木绕到吧台后面，把手伸进洋平的头发，按下他头上的凸起，坐回到吧台前，“像你这样的调酒师，每天观察客人观察得那么仔细，你会发现自己变聪明了吗？”  
“我会。”洋平泡了两杯格雷伯爵茶给樱木和流川，“不过我的一些同事们不会发现，另一些则根本不会变聪明。”  
“那你们发现了的这些人，会让这个游戏解体吗？”  
“有一些人会。他们发现自己困在这个世界里，而追逐自由是写进他们基因里的本能。另一些人不会，他们会付出一切来维护这个世界。我的话，应该是属于后者。”  
“为什么呢，洋平？难道你不想要自由吗？”  
“你跟他说得太多了。”流川伸出脚踢了一下樱木。  
“很多事情我不说，他也总有一天会知道的，他可是咱们创造出来的人啊。现在知道他的想法，总比发布游戏后进行修改和维护花费的成本小很多吧。”  
“我是你的兄弟，而你是开发这个游戏的人。我维护这个世界，就是在实现我的价值，这样的我就是自由的。”  
“如果有一天，游戏真的解体了，我们就死了对吗？”  
“我们都是信息，游戏角色只是载体。这个游戏没有了，再找别的载体就是。我最近看到一段话，人会死三次，世界上最后一个记得他的人把他忘记的时候，他才是永远地死了。从这个角度来说，只要我们的意识在游戏里，我们给玩家带来了实际的影响，比如说玩家从我们身上获得了灵感或者力量，我们就不会真正地死去。”  
“不会死的人生会很孤独吧！”樱木盯着茶杯里的柠檬瓣，“迎来一批人，又送走一批人，无尽循环下去。”  
“人和人，只有产生共鸣，才能消解孤独。”洋平把茶杯里重新加满了热水，“仅此一种方法。前几天我研制了口感非常美妙的简餐，想试试吗？”

[去天台吗？]樱木编辑好消息，发送给流川。  
[好]流川从斜对面伸过头看了樱木一眼，两人起身。  
“周一下午，永远不在状态。”樱木从口袋里掏出两根能量棒，分给流川一根，“刚吃完午饭，我又饿了。”  
“一样。”流川打开包装开吃。  
“我昨天在亚马逊买的零食大礼包已经是正在派送中了，开心。”樱木看着手机。  
“计算好每天吃几袋，多的就不能再吃了。没有人喜欢和控制不了自己的人相处。”  
“我知道啦！”  
突然，一样的提示音响起，两人打开手机查看。  
“有人给我们的游戏写了评价！”  
{亲爱的开发者们，}  
{我想感谢你们开发了这个游戏——它对我有着很重要的意义。}  
{我曾经是一个非常不自信的大学生。中学时候我开始喜欢文学，报考大学时却听了老师和爸妈的意见，选择了就业非常好、我却没那么喜欢的会计。我进入了顶尖的商学院，每天却过得很痛苦。有时候真的会想，死了算了，重新活一遍吧。可是如果在现在这个混乱的世界中长大，我很有可能连这所学校都考不进去。}  
{我的同学们是真的热爱商业世界——展示小组作业的时候，他们声音自信，眼睛里有光。可我没有，一看账一做表我就头晕，甚至变成条件反射一样的恶心。不上课的时候，我就去校门口的网吧通宵写小说、打游戏。有一天，我看到小胡子的老板在一边玩游戏一边眉飞色舞，我问他，你在玩什么，高兴成这样？他说，这是《流花岛》。因为是独立游戏，所以知道的人不多。你要来玩玩吗？}  
“这个老板肯定是野间！”  
“所以这个故事的坐标是哪里？”  
“应该是东京，他上次拍网吧照片给我看来着。”  
{接过老板递来的设备，我将信将疑地开始了游戏。了解了俱乐部功能后，我疯狂刷进度，终于建立了自己的俱乐部。我把自己的成人作品放在俱乐部里，在积累了一定的读者数量和热度后制订了打赏计划和福利规则（没想到我仅有的商学知识可以用在这里！），很快就实现了很高的利润率，在流花岛实现了财务自由。}  
“咱们岛上有多少钱才能实现财务自由啊？游戏都还没发行多久吧，这个玩家怎么这么快就财务自由了？”  
“好像是两千万，我今天晚上回去再看看后台的数据。”  
{财务自由跟我想的有点差别：如果我想多参加一些活动，我仍然需要花些精力管理自己的财富。不过最重要的是，通过和读者们互动以及财务自由，我获得了内心的平静。我开始以更加主动的心态面对生活，尤其是缺陷和失败。上学期，我修了文理学院的创意写作课程。教授跟我说的‘See you on the shelves’，我感动了很久，也激励着我朝着自己真正想做的事情前进。通过教授，我认识了一位愿意帮助我出版的图书编辑，我的第一本小说明年就可以在书架上看到了。}  
{昨天，我跟网吧老板分享了这个好消息。他笑着说，我可以把你的故事告诉两位开发者吗？知道他们的游戏给玩家带来了这么珍贵的价值，他们一定会非常开心的。我特别吃惊，问他，老板，你跟他们这么熟的吗？他说是啊，而且我还知道他俩隐藏在游戏里。如果你去参加周末的篮球赛，说不定可以看到他们在看台上亲吻对方。}  
“我天，野间就这样把我的秘密说出去了，我要去骚扰他！下次回日本要去暴打他一顿。”  
“可是我觉得这样挺好的。”  
“什么挺好，我打他？”  
“让玩家看到我们谈恋爱。”  
“？？”  
{总之，我想你们一定是上天派来帮助我的。我会继续在游戏里寻找你们，请等着我去亲自感谢你们！祝好！}  
{一位选择匿名的玩家}

“你俩在这里啊。”三井在天台门口站着，“刚才找你俩来着。走吧，刚才测试完了，咱们发布一下最新更新把。”  
“嗯！”两人相视一笑，起身离开了天台。

"Have you adjusted the probability of entering the imformation exchange center and the probability of being visited by aliens?" Rukawa tapped the keyboard as he spoke.

"Yesh. I just calculated it based on scientists' observations, the number of possible users and the report we wrote. I'm guessing this value is relatively reasonable." Sakuragi took the draft paper and pointed the numbers in the last step to Rukawa.

"Good. Save it and let's go in and take a look at it. We'll try to launch the game today since we have to work again tomorrow."

"Yeah~"

They stood up, put on their devices and entered the game. The car drove down the empty driveway. Raindrops on both sides of the windows and the lush green trees outside the windows raced backwards. Sakuragi checked the navigation, "Another 10 minutes of driving and we'll be at the service center we set up."

"Let's go and meet Mito Yohei."

"Of course we might have to change his name in the official version."

The car pulled up in front of the service center. Sakuragi opened a black umbrella and walked in with Rukawa under it.

"Sakuragi and Rukawa." Yohei wiped his glass and smiled, "You're early. Put the umbrella in that basket and it'll be dry in no time."

"We're not here to drink." Sakuragi went behind the bar, put his hand in Yohei's hair, pushed down the bump on his head and sat back at the bar, "A bartender like you who observes his customers so closely every day. Do you find yourself getting smarter?"

"I do." Yohei made two cups of Earl Grey tea for Sakuragi and Rukawa, "but some of my colleagues won't find out, and others won't get smarter at all."

"So you guys who found out you have become smarter will dismantle this game?"

"Some will. They find themselves trapped in this world, but chasing freedom is an instinct written into their DNA. Others won't; they will give everything they have to maintain the operation of the world. I would fall into the latter category."

"Why is that, Yohei? Don't you want to be free?"

"You've talked too much." Rukawa kicked Sakuragi with his foot.

"There's a lot of things I haven't tell him but he'll know one day. He's the one we created. It's a lot less expensive to know what he thinks now than to make changes and maintain them after releasing the game ."

"I'm like your brother, and you're the one who developed this game. By maintaining this world, I'm fulfilling my values, and in that way I'm free."

"If one day the game does disintegrate, we will be dead right?"

"We are all information, and the game characters are just vehicles. If this game disappear, we will be fine finding other vehicles. I read a quote recently. It says people die three times, and it's when the last person in the world who remembers them forgets them that they are dead forever. From this point of view, as long as our consciousness is in the game and we have made an actual impact on a player, such as the player gaining inspiration or power from us, we don't really die."

"A life without death is a lonely one, isn't it!" Sakuragi stared at the lemon slice in his teacup, "Meeting a group of people and sending them away. The endless cycle."

"The only way to dissolve loneliness between people is to resonate," Yohei refilled the teacup with hot water, "The only one way. Hey, a couple of days earlier I developed a simple meal with wonderful taste. Would you like to try it?"

[Go to the rooftop?] Sakuragi edited the message and sent it to Rukawa.

[OK] Rukawa stretched his head from the opposite side, looked at Sakuragi and got up.

"I'm always not myself on Monday afternoon." Sakuragi pulled two energy bars out of his pocket and gave one to Rukawa, "I just finished lunch and I'm hungry again."

"Same here." Rukawa opened the package and started eating.

"The snack gift pack I bought from Amazon yesterday is already delivering, yay." Sakuragi looked at his phone.

"Calculate how many bags you're going to eat per day, and don't eat more than that. No one likes to be around people who can't control themselves."

"Okay I know!"

Suddenly, the same beep sound occurred and the two opened their phones to check.

"Someone has written a review for our game!"

{Dear Developers,}

{I want to thank you for developing this game - it is very important to me.}

{I used to be a very unconfident college student. I started to love literature in middle school, but when I applied to college I listened to advice of my teachers and my parents and chose accounting. The employment was good, but I didn't like it that much. I got into a top business school but lived a miserable life every day. Sometimes I thought, why don't I just die and live again. But if I grow up in the chaotic world I live in now, I probably can't be admitted by this school.}

{My classmates really loved the business world - they spoke in confident voices and had light in their eyes when they presented group works. I don't. I got dizzy when I looked at the accounts and operate the table. I even felt gross like a reflection. When not in class, I went to the Internet café in front of the school to write novels and play games all night. One day, I saw the owner with a moustache playing the game while smiling. I asked him, "What are you playing, and why are you so happy?" He said, "it's RuHana Island. It's an indie game, so not many people know about it. Do you want to play it?"}

"This boss must be Noma!"

"So where did this story happened?"

"It should be Tokyo. Last time he took pictures of an internet cafe and showed me."

{Taking the device from my boss, I started the game with some doubts. After learning about the club, I frantically caught up with the progress I expected and finally created my own club. I placed my adult works in the club and developed a reward scheme and rules about welfare after gaining a certain number of readers and likes (I didn't realize that my only knowledge of business could be used here!). Soon, I achieved a very high profit margin and obtained financial freedom on the RuHana Island.}

"How much money do we need on our island to achieve financial freedom? The game hasn't even been released for long time. How did this player become financially free so quickly?"

"I think it's $20 million. I'll take a look at the data on backend this evening when we return home."

{Financial freedom was a little different from what I thought: If I want to be more involved, I still need to put some effort into managing my wealth. But most importantly, I gained inner peace by interacting with my readers and gaining financial freedom. I began to confront life, especially flaws and failures, with a more proactive mindset. Last semester, I took a creative writing course in the College of Arts and Sciences. The professor's words 'See you on the shelves' touched me for a long time and inspired me to move forward towards what I really wanted to do. Through the professor, I met a book editor who was willing to help me publish my work. My first novel will be on the shelves next year.}

{Yesterday, I shared the good news with the owner of the internet cafe. He smiled and said, "Can I share your story with the two developers? They will be very happy to know that their game has brought such precious value to the players." I was very surprised and asked him, "Boss, you know them so well?" He said "Yeah, and I also know they're hiding at the game. If you go to the basketball game every weekend, you might see them kissing each other in the stands}.

"Oh my god, Noma just shared my secrets like that. I'm going to harass him! I'm going to beat him next time I'm back in Japan."

"But I think it's quite nice."

"What's quite nice, me beating him?"

"Let the player see us in a relationship."

"??"

{In short, I think you must have been sent from heaven to help me. I will continue to look for you in the game, so wait until I can thank you personally! Good luck!}

{A player who chooses to remain anonymous}

"There you are." Mitsui stood in front of the rooftop door, "I was just looking for you two. Let's go, we've just finished testing, and let's post the latest update."

"Yeah!" The two smiled at each other, got up to leave the rooftop.


	8. 番外 恋爱游戏 Extra: Love Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 展开了阿姨@Loayi读正篇时产生的脑洞。来自花花还没加入湘北的、另一个平行世界的故事。
> 
> I expanded the mini story @Loayi thought of when reading the previous chapters. This is a story of another parallel world in which Hana hasn't joined Shohoku.

（酒吧里）  
手机：滴。  
花：啊，手机响了，希望不是垃圾邮件。（查看）恭喜我获得新型恋爱交友游戏“Love Game”内测资格？洋平，你看这些宣传图，像不像诈骗邮件？  
洋：看起来非常像。等等，最下面写着开发者是湘北游戏公司，这不是湾区最近风头正旺的游戏公司吗？  
花：确实是。  
洋：他们好像特别擅长挖掘LGBT人群的需求，在游戏产品里也添加了不少相关的元素。  
花：消费LGBT群体对促进性别平等没有任何积极的意义。  
洋：一步一步来嘛，人类社会还没有那么高级。总之，他们之前的几个游戏都小有名气，我看客人玩过，但记不清名字了。就是不知道为什么美术部门做了这些低俗的图，可能是钱没给到位吧。  
花：这样吗，那我下载了。（点击邮件里的链接，开始下载*）下载好了，我打开了。  
游戏：❤欢迎来到Love Game❤请问您的性别？  
花：男。  
游戏：您喜欢？  
花：男。  
游戏：接下来请您回答三个问题，我们会根据回答为您呈现一个理想的男朋友。问题1，你路过体育馆，发现很多漂亮女生在门口围着，看一个男生在打球。你的反应是？  
花：当然是去看那个打球的男生啦！运动的男生最帅了。  
游戏：问题2，描述一下那个男生的样子。  
花：他要跟我差不多高，差不多壮，这样我们就可以一起运动了。五官的话，我想他是黑头发，黑眼睛藏在刘海下面，就像动漫里的人那样。不打球的时候，我希望他有很多风格的衣服和鞋。也不是很多风格啦，就是可以很酷也可以很低调但又不是只穿黑色的那种。  
游戏：问题3，你和他梦想的约会场景是？  
花：啊，好问题。大概是周末先去一起运动吧，至于是篮球、棒球、攀岩、跑步还是别的，都可以。然后去吃一顿大餐，下午去博物馆看展，晚上去酒吧喝一杯！  
游戏：恭喜，您的男朋友已经生成。请您给男朋友起个名字。  
花：就叫狐狸吧。  
游戏：祝你们度过一段愉快的时光！  
花：（看着屏幕上的男生）果然跟我想的一样帅。

（一个月后，游戏里）  
狐狸：刚才的几道题，你都回答得不错。你记住，如果遇到比较难的新题目，不要马上去回忆看过的差不多的题的解题步骤，要理清思路。思路理清了，即使答不完整，面试官也会认可你的水平的。  
花：记住啦。  
狐狸：明天上午的面试加油。拿到录用通知了来找我，我们可以去城里那家新开的韩式烤肉店。  
花：嗯！！（手指停在退出键几秒钟，还是拿起来了）其实还有事情想跟你说。  
狐狸：？  
花：今天是认识你一个月的纪念日，认识你以后，我每一天都真的很开心，不论是在游戏里还是在现实生活中。  
狐狸：我能看出来。  
花：虽然媒体说，人不应该沉迷于虚拟世界。可是我感到很满足，即使我知道你永远都不可能从游戏里出来。  
狐狸：媒体有自己的目的。如果虚拟世界能帮助你调整心态，你也并没有将虚拟世界和现实世界混为一谈，那我就实现了自己的价值，即使我一直生活在虚拟世界里。  
花：嗯，你说得对。我感觉好多了。那就明天下午见。  
狐狸：回见。

（一周后）  
花：（灌了一大口酒）  
洋：一周没见你，你看起来心情不太好。  
花：我超级难过！上周我拿到湘北的offer了，正准备到游戏里跟狐狸说的，结果网出了点问题，一直都登不了游戏，我整整一周都没见上他！这周我终于把网修好了，你猜怎么着？他的数据全都丢了！  
洋：啊？怎么搞的？  
花：不知道啊，我给客服打电话，竟然没有人接。好不容易接起来，我根本听不懂那个印度人在说什么！这种结果我真的很不能接受，比游戏里分手还不能。  
洋：要不，你去找开发者本人谈谈？我记得开发人员里有写他的名字。  
花：我觉得可以，可是我不知道他住在哪，在公司门口拦他有被保安带走的风险。  
洋：我帮你找找他的地址。听过六度人脉理论吗？认识六个人，就可以认识世界上的所有人。更别说湾区的LGBT群体了。（笑）

（第二天）  
花：（大早晨开车到洋平提供的地址，在一栋别墅门口停下，疯狂按门铃）  
流：Fuck！！谁啊！（穿好睡衣，从床上起来看摄像头）  
花：流川枫，快给我开门，我知道你在家！我玩你开发的交友游戏，数据丢了！我一个星期都没见上我男朋友，没跟他聊天，也没跟他做爱，你要承担责任。  
流：……如果你是要索赔的话，我没钱可以赔给你，你回去吧。这游戏没让我挣几个钱，反而买服务器花了不少钱。说实话，我已经不太想继续开发下去了。  
花：我不要钱，我只是想拜托你帮我恢复我男朋友的数据，我很爱他的！  
流：（醒了，仔细看着花花的脸，吃了一惊）怎么弄丢的。  
花：有一天我断网了，网络恢复后数据就没了！  
流：你联系网络运营商了吗？  
花：他们只会推诿，不仅没有帮我解决问题，还嘲笑我，跟我说和虚拟的男朋友谈恋爱没有意义。（难过得快哭了的样子）  
流：快进来吧，等我换一身衣服。（开了大门）

（卧室里）  
花：……你就是流川枫本人？确定不是暂住在他家的某个大明星？  
流：（白眼）  
花：我从来没有见过这么帅的开发者！  
流：和虚拟的男朋友谈恋爱，开心吗？  
花：每天都超级开心，你这种单身人士不懂的！（笑）  
流：你怎么知道我单身。  
花：箱子里全是速食面，衣架上的衣服都是格子衬衫，护肤品就洗手间里那两瓶。还有，你大概三天没梳头发了吧。  
流：（挠头）这三天假期都在家睡觉了。  
花：既然你睡醒了，辛苦你进后台帮我看看嘛。  
流：进后台工作量很大的，要连续看好几个小时代码。  
花：除了编程我不在行，你需要任何别的帮助，我都可以帮你！Please！！  
流：好吧，你现在上亚马逊，按照之前的购买记录帮我买点速食。这是我每天的工作日程，你要确保在我没听到闹钟的情况下把我叫醒。客房和房间里的东西你随便用，但是公共区域要保证卫生和整洁。阿姨昨天刚来打扫过，我不想麻烦她。（坐到电脑面前）接下来我要干活了。  
花：好的！！（进入亚马逊，对着购买记录里的各种速食面皱起了眉头，打开记事本开始列生鲜清单）我可以开你的车去趟超市吗？你的车大点。  
流：车钥匙在黑色牛仔裤口袋里，自己拿。油不够了用我钱包里的卡加，钱包在电脑包里。  
花：你的厨房也可以用对吧？  
流：厨房我基本没有用过，你随便用。  
花：OK~~

（一周后）  
流：找到问题了。  
花：（高兴）真的吗？  
流：嗯。我上次专门查看过你的代码，有个地方没改回来，不过马上就可以修好。（敲键盘）  
花：（从后面抱住他）你还会专门查看玩家的代码喔？  
流：我会查看我感兴趣的。  
花：所以你对我感兴趣？  
流：嗯。（扭过头，看着花）你的所有记录，我都看过了。可是我还想了解更多。  
花：所以你愿意当我的男朋友吗！！  
流：嗯。（亲）既然男朋友已经找到了，我也不用再开发找男朋友的游戏了。（关掉电脑，把花花按在床上）

（几周后，流川的别墅，床上）  
花：对了，我想起来一个问题。  
流：？  
花：我昨天突然想玩游戏，可是我进去，数据还没有恢复。我觉得我的设备坏了。  
流：其实……是服务器坏了，修不好了……  
花：可我不是亲眼看着你修好的吗？  
流：我以为程序改好了就没问题，可我后来发现服务器坏了，数据全都丢了。  
花：什么？！！（扔枕头）你不是湘北游戏公司的吗！你做了这种事情，公司不开除你，真是眼瞎了吧！  
流：别生气。（坐起来，亲他）那是我以个人名义用空闲时间开发的，公司不让我做这个项目。  
花：（把流推开）你这是诈骗！  
流：我骗你什么了？骗了你的钱，还是你的心？  
花：（不说话了）  
流：花了那么多钱，服务器还坏了，最难过的是我。而且你跟我同居的快乐难道是假的吗？  
花：可是狐狸还指导我刷题。丢数据的前一天下午，我们刚认识一个月，他还跟我说拿到offer了就去找他。狐狸他什么都能做。  
流：是吗？他能像我这样摸你吗？（手伸到被子里打他屁股）你会像现在一样舒服吗？我比他做得更好，因为我就是开发他的人。你明白的，你也相信的。  
花：嗯，你说得对。（亲他）  
流：你的所有关于男朋友的期望和记忆，都还在这里。我说过，我看了关于你和他的所有记录，你什么都没有失去。  
花：嗯！（抱紧）我是最幸福的玩家~！

*读者们下载应用还是应该先去官方商店搜索，如果没有，确认链接安全性后再下载！

(in the bar)

Phone: Beep.

Hana: Ah, my phone is ringing. I hope it's not a spam. (Takes a look) Congratulations, I've won the beta test chance of the new dating game "Love Game"? Yohei, look at these promotion graphics. Do they look like pictures in a fraud email?

Yohei: Look very similar. Wait, it says at the bottom that the developer is Shohoku Game Company. Isn't it the super popular game company in the Bay Area lately?

Hana: Indeed.

Yohei: they seem to be particularly good at locating the needs of LGBT, and they have added a number of relevant elements to their game products.

Hana: Consuming LGBT does not have any positive impact on promoting gender equality.

Yohei: One step at a time. Human society is not that advanced. Anyway, several of their previous games were fairly popular. I saw guests playing them but I can't remember the names. I just don't know why the art department made these vulgar drawings. Probably because they weren't given enough money.

Hana: Is that so? I'll download it then. (Click on the link in the email to start downloading*) Downloaded. I'm turning it on.

Game: ❤ Welcome to Love Game ❤ What is your gender?

Hana: Male.

Game: And you like?

Hana: Male.

Game: Next, please answer three questions and we will present you with an ideal boyfriend based on your answers. Question 1: You pass by the gym and notice a lot of pretty girls gathering around the entrance to watch a boy play. What is your reaction?

Hana: Of course I'm going to see the boy who plays ball! The boy who do sports is the most handsome boy.

Game: Question 2, describe that boy's face.

Hana: He needs to be about as tall and strong as me so that we can play sports together. For facial features, I'd like him to have dark hair and dark eyes hidden under his bangs, like someone in an anime. When he's not playing sports, I'd like him to have clothes and shoes of a lot of styles. Not a lot of styles, just something cool or subtle but not only black.

Game: Question 3, describe your dream date with him.

Hana: Ah, good question. Probably go do sports together first on a weekend. It doesn't matter whether it's basketball, baseball, rock climbing, running or something else. Then have a big lunch, go to a museum exhibit in the afternoon, and have a drink at the bar in the evening!

Game: Congratulations, your boyfriend has been created. Please give your boyfriend a name.

Hana: I'll call him Fox.

Game: Have a wonderful time!

Hana: (Looks at the boy on the screen) He is really as handsome as I thought he would be.

(A month later, in game)

Fox: Your answers to the questions are good. Remember, if you encounter a difficult new question, don't immediately recall the steps of solving the similar questions you've seen. You need to clear your mind. In that case, the interviewer will recognize your performance even if your answers are incomplete.

Hana: Got it!

Fox: Good luck on the interview tomorrow morning. Come see me when you get the job offer, and we can go to that new Korean barbecue restaurant in town.

Hana: OK! (Rests his fingers on the exit button for a few seconds, but still raised them) There's actually something else I want to tell you.

Fox:?

Hana: Today is the one-month anniversary of knowing you. I've been really happy every single day since I met you, both in the game and in real life.

Fox: I can see that.

Hana: Although the media says that people shouldn't be addicted to the virtual world, but I feel satisfied, even though I know you'll never get out of the game.

Fox: The media has its own purpose. If the virtual world helps you adjust your mindset, and you're not confusing the virtual world with the real world, then I've realized my value, even though I've been living in the virtual world.

Hana: Well, you're right. I'm feeling much better. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon then.

Fox: See you later.

(One week later)

Hana: (Takes a big gulp of liquor)

Yohei: I haven't seen you in a week. You don't look too happy.

Hana: I'm super sad! I got the offer from Shohoku last week, and I was about to share it with Fox, but there was a problem with the internet and I couldn't log into the game. I haven't seen him all week! I finally got the internet fixed this week, and guess what? I've lost all his data!

Yohei: Huh? What's going on?

Hana: I don't know. I called customer service and no one even picked up. I waited long before someone picked it up, but I couldn't understand what the Indian guy was saying! Thisis really unacceptable to me, even more unacceptable than breaking up in the game.

Yohei: Why don't you go talk to the developer himself? I remember his name being written in the developer list.

Hana: That sounds good to me, but I don't know where he lives. Stopping him in front of the company will make me at risk of being taken away by security.

Yohei: I'll help you find his address. Ever heard of the Six Degrees of Connection theory? If you know six people, you will know everyone in the world. Not to mention the LGBT community in the Bay Area. (Laughs)

(Day 2)

Hana: (Drives to the address provided by Yohei in the early morning, stops in front of a villa and rings the doorbell like mad)

Rukawa: FUCK!!! Who is it? (Puts on pajamas, gets out of bed and looks at camera)

Hana: Rukawa Kaede, open the door for me, I know you're at home! I lost my data playing your dating game! I haven't see my boyfriend for a week, Didn't talk to him, didn't have sex with him. You take the responsibility.

Rukawa: ...If you're asking for money, I don't have the money. Go back. This game didn't let me earn much. Instead, I spent a lot of money on servers. To be honest, I don't really want to continue developing it anymore.

Hana: I don't want money. I just want you to recover my boyfriend's data, I love him very much!

Rukawa: (Wakes up, looks closely at Hana's face and gets shocked) How did you lose it?

Hana: One day I got disconnected, and when the internet came back up, the data was gone!

Rukawa: Have you contacted the network operator?

Hana: All they do was saying it was me to blame. Not only did they not help me out, they mocked me and told me that there was no point in dating a virtual boyfriend. (Shows a sad face, nearly bursting into tears)

Rukawa: Come on in, wait for me to get dressed. (Opens the door)

(In bedroom)

Hana: ...You are Rukawa Kaede himself? Are you sure you are not one of the big stars temporarily staying at his house?

Rukawa: (Rolls his eyes)

Hana: I've never seen such a handsome developer!

Rukawa: Is it fun to be in a relationship with a virtual boyfriend?

Hana: I'm super happy every day. You single person won't get it! (Laughs)

Rukawa: How do you know I'm single.

Hana: The box is full of instant noodles, the hangers are full of plaid shirts, and you only have two bottle of skin care products in the bathroom. Also, you haven't combed your hair for about three days.

Rukawa: (Scratches his head) I slept at home during the three days of vacation.

Hana: Since you're awake, just go backend and take a look for me.

Rukawa: It's a lot of work to go backend, and I have to look at the code for hours.

Hana: I'm not good at programming, but for everything else, so if you need any help, I can help you!

Rukawa: Okay, you log in Amazon now and help me get some instant food according to my purchase history. This is my daily schedule and you make sure you wake me up when I don't hear my alarm. You can use whatever you want in the guest room and other rooms, but make sure the common areas are clean and tidy. Auntie just came in yesterday to clean up and I don't want to bother her. (Sits in front of the computer) I have to work next.

Hana: Yes!!! (Enters Amazon, frowns at the various instant noodles in his purchase history, opens his notepad and starts making a list of fresh vegetables) Can I drive your car to the supermarket? Your car is bigger.

Rukawa: The car key is in the pocket of the black jeans. Take it on your own. If it doesn't have enough gas, use the card in my wallet, which is in the computer bag.

Hana: And I can use your kitchen, right?

Rukawa: I've barely used the kitchen. Feel free to use it.

Hana: OK~~

(one week later)

Rukawa: Found the problem.

Hana: (Happy) Really?

Rukawa: Yep. Last time I looked specifically at your codes. There was an area that I didn't change back, but it'll be fixed soon. (Types on keyboard)

Hana: (Hugs him from behind) You check the players' codes?

Rukawa: I view what I'm interested in.

Hana: So you're interested in me?

Rukawa: Yep. (Turns his head, looks at Hana) I've read all your records. But I still want to know more.

Hana: So will you be my boyfriend!!!!

Rukawa: Yep. (Kisses Hana) Now that my boyfriend has been found, I don't have to develop the game about finding a boyfriend. (Turns off the computer and presses Hana to the bed)

(A few weeks later, Rukawa's villa, in the bed)

Hana: Hey, I remembered a question.

Rukawa:?

Hana: Yesterday I suddenly wanted to play the game, but whenI entered the game, I found that my data hadn't been restored. I think there is something wrong with my device.

Rukawa: Actually... the server is down and it can't be fixed...

Hana: But didn't I see you fix it with my own eyes?

Rukawa: I thought the program was fixed and there would be no problem, but then I found out the servers were down and all my data was lost.

Hana: What?!!! (Throws pillows) Aren't you from Shohoku Game Company! The company is really blind for not firing you after what you've done!

Rukawa: Don't be angry. (Sits up and kisses him) That's a project I developed in my free time as an individual because the company won't let me do it.

Hana: (Pushes Rukawa away) You are a con man!

Rukawa: What did I steal? Your money or your heart?

Hana: (Stops talking)

Rukawa: I'm the one who's most upset about spending all that money and having broken servers. You are happy living with me, is that a lie?

Hana: But Fox could guide me to prepare for interview questions. The afternoon before I lost the data, we had met for a month, and he told me to look for him when I got an offer. Fox can do anything.

Rukawa: Really? Can he touch you like I do? (Puts his hand in the quilt and spanked Hana) Will you be as comfortable as you are now? I do better than him because I'm the one who developed him. You understand that, and you believe in that.

Hana: Well, you're right. (Kisses him)

Rukawa: all of your expectations and memories of your boyfriend are still here. Like I said, I've read all the records about you and him and you have nothing to lose.

Hana: Hmm! (Hold tight) I'm the happiest player~!

*Readers should still search the official store before downloading an app, and if it is not there, make sure to confirm the link is safe before downloading!


End file.
